Of Feathers & Innocence
by obsidianlight
Summary: The TRC group had ended up in the imaginary beginning of the 19th century, where the Black Order and the Earl are engaged in a war. What would ever happen if the TRC group are caught in between the ongoing war? chapter 17 is up! WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. Chapter 1

**Of Feathers and Innocence**

**Plot: The TRC gang had just crossed dimensions and guess where they ended up? In the imaginary beginning of the 19****th**** century, where the Black Order and the Earl are engaged in a war. What would ever happen if the TRC gang are caught in between the ongoing war? TRC/DGM crossover.**

_A/N:__ Disclaimer: I do not own DGM or Tsubasa Chronicles, I only own the plot of this story…and the title =)_

_And enjoy the story!_

* * *

Morning came as usual at the Black Order. The light shining through the windows, awaking some from a good night rest. However, in the case for the Order, there's always a bunch of people having a lack of sleep and high level of stress due to the vast amount of work that seems to pile endlessly.

A bunch of people would mainly be the group of scientists. Everyday, there are tons of paperwork to be done and the scientists had to work overtime most of the time. Furthermore, there's no overwork pay.

The only exception who is not really affected by the overloading work and stress is 65 mainly because he was not really a human. However, the rest of the science department are human who are about to "snap" anytime due to the stress over the workload. This is somehow prevented due to the consistent delivery of coffee by the supervisor's younger sister, Lenalee, along with the occassional accompany of Allen.

Reever Wenham, the science department's section leader, who was also extremely tired and stressed out, looked up from the pile of papers that literally buried his head. About this time, the supervisor of the science department, Komui, should be signing certain documents. Sighing, Reever signalled a few other scientists to help him carry the staggering pile of papers to Komui's office.

Entering the paper strewn floor of Komui's office, Reever sighed once again as he spotted Komui, procrastinating yet again. But this time, in the form of sleeping. Reever knew that nothing could easily wake the sleeping supervisor up, even when icy cold water were to be splashed on him.

However, there is always one way that will wake him for sure. Like all methods, this method has it's pros and cons. The pros being that it'll definitely wake Komui and the cons being that he might go into a frenzy after it. With the staggering pile of papers to sign, this left Reever no choice.

"Supervisor Komui, Lenalee is getting married today." Chief section leader Reever whispered into the ear of the sleeping man.

"LENALEE!!!!"

"Supervisor…"

"How could you not tell your brother that you're getting married?! Your dear brother would never allow that!!"

"Supervisor…"

"Komurin V! let's go! We've got a wedding to crash!"

Komui took out his remote control and pressed on a random button. Suddenly, the whole room trembled slightly as the doors that held Komurin V behind open to release the latter. Before Reever even had a chance to tell Komui that the whole thing was just to wake him up, Komui had already hopped onto Komurin V and went on his way.

"Supervisor…" Reever gave a defeated sigh before attempting to chase after his crazed supervisor.

* * *

Down at some corridor in the Black Order…

15 year old Allen Walker casually strolled along the corridors towards the direction of the cafeteria. Surprisingly, the boy don't seem to have a problem finding his way there even though he had a bad sense of direction.

"_That's strange, I haven't seen Timcampy all morning."_ Allen thought.

Just then, a familiar fellow exorcist and timcampy appeared in the opposite direction of where Allen is walking.

"Timcampy, so that's where you have been!" the boy exclaimed happily when he spotted the golem.

"Good morning, Allen-kun!" Lenalee greeted.

"Good morning, Lenalee, are you bringing coffee to Reever-san and the others?" Allen asked, noticing the tray that she's carrying.

Lenalee nodded her head and replied, "Yup, I'll be on my way, see you later!"

Out of nowhere, a random piece of banana peel appeared on the floor where Lenalee was about to take the next step. Unfortunately, she didn't notice this and slipped, causing the tray to fly out of her hands and onto the floor. Lenalee then awaited for the hard impact with the floor.

But it never came.

"Umm…Lenalee, are you okay?" Allen asked, wincing slightly from the impact.

Lenalee opened her eyes and realized that she had fallen on top of Allen or rather she had pulled him as she fell and he blocked her from the impending impact.

For a second, the both of them did not realize their positions. Then, both realized that their noses were almost touching, however, before either of them could react…

"ALLEN WALKER!!!! GET AWAY FROM MY LENALEE!!!!!! KOMURIN V ATTACK!!!"

From the distance, the pair spotted Komui with another robot with a hat indicating that it is another creation of the Komurin. Immediately, the pair got up, trying to make everything seem normal. Unfortunately, once Komui spotted it, it'll probably mean "a fate worse than death".

"Eh?! This couldn't be happening…" Allen moaned, still blushing from the brief contact he had with Lenalee. "umm, Lenalee, see you later, I guess?"

"uhm…better get to a safer place…while you still have a chance, I'll try to stop Nii-san" Lenalee replied awkwardly, she too was still blushing.

"Thanks.", Allen said gratefully before running off in the opposite ran off in the opposite direction at top speed, his previous "accquaintances" with the other Komurins wasn't exactly nice and he didn't want to repeat it at any time, anywhere.

* * *

Meanwhile, at a place not far from the previous scene…

The ceiling of the corridor suddenly dipped towards the ground as if it has been liquified by someone. If anyone had been there at the time, they would not have noticed it as the whole thing was camouflaged to blend into the current surroundings. As the ceiling touched the ground, the material dispersed off immediately to reveal a certain quartet.

Not surprisingly, the quartet had yet again landed on top of one another, with Syaoran on the top and Kurogane at the bottom (as usual). Mokona was the only one who seemed all right after the whole process "Puu! We've arrived at a new world!" he announced in his usual cheerful voice as he landed on top of Kurogane's head.

"Get off, you white bun! Honestly, why can't we have a peaceful landing at most of the other worlds we've been to?" Kurogane complained, he wasn't exactly in the best of his moods right now.

"Princess, are you alright?" Syaoran asked worriedly, helping the Sakura up after realizing he was on top of her.

"I'm fine, thanks." Sakura smiled as she stood up.

"Hehh…this is going to be interesting, kuropon?" Fay asked with his trademark smile and getting off Kurogane's back. Ever since they landed here, the mage had not bothered to get off Kurogane's back, until he spotted Allen from a distance and that gave him an idea.

Not quite getting what the mage had meant, Kurogane stood up as if the mage had not said anything but then he noticed a certain white-haired boy running towards him and tried to dodge but it was too late. Allen tried to stop as well but the friction on the ground wasn't enough and he crashed straight into Kurogane.

Luckily for Kurogane, he was much bigger than Allen and did not get knocked off balance but for Allen however, he totally lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"Ouch, ouch…umm…sorry, I wasn't looking where I was running……" Allen tried to apologize but left his sentence hanging as soon as he realized that the strange group in front of him isn't part of the order or of this world at all.

Before Allen could ask any questions, Fay replied smoothly, "No no, we should be the ones apologizing for dropping by here. Anyway, I'm Fay and this is Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona and Kuro-wanwan" gesturing at each person as he mentioned their respecive names, except for Kurogane, that is.

"Stop calling me that! It's Kurogane!"

"Waii!! Kuro-wanwan is so scary!" Mokona said in a sing-song voice.

"Eh?! That white manjuu can talk?!" Allen asked in surprise. (Allen happened to be hungry at that moment)

" I'm Mokona, not white manjuu…" Mokona pretended to pout.

"Ah, sorry, so are you some kind of rabbit?"

"Nope, Mokona is Mokona, everybody's idol!!!" Mokona said, twirling around at the same time.

"…" Allen only sweatdropped at the comment, unsure of what to say.

"FOUND YOU!!! ALLEN WALKER!!!" a voice shouted triumphantly followed by a series of thundering footsteps, obviously belonging to Komurin V.

"No way…I gotta run, see you later," Allen said, "_if I manage to survive this one…_"he thought to himself.

Before Allen could even take one step forward, Komurin V extended it's hand and grab hold of Allen's right leg, hoisting him in the air.

"Kurogane-san, do you think we should help him?" Syaoran asked, unsure of what to do.

Without a word, Kurogane took out his katana and sliced at the robot, freeing Allen at the same time.

"Komurin V!!!!"

Clutching the leg of the robot, Komui tried to prevent the giant robot from falling but even with his efforts, the robot still fell with a loud crash. Just then, a certain samurai with a katana named mugen came to the corridor looking irritated.

"What's going on?" he asked coldly, all the ruckus from just now had successfully managed to prevent him from doing any meditation at all.

"…"

"Supervisor! So that's where you are…now, time to get back and sign the stack of documents!" Reever pulled Komui out from the pile of metal scrap that was once Komurin V.

"I can't!! What if Allen-kun tries to take advantage of my precious Lenalee?!"

"Nii-san…-"

"Don't worry Lenalee, Onii-san will finish off this personally."

"Eh?!" Allen tried to run as Komui advanced towards him, glancing at Lenalee for help.

"Enough of this already, Nii-san" Lenalee sighed before activating her dark boots.

Immediately, the pair of rings around her ankles changed into boots with that of a blood red colour. Without using most of her strength, she hit the supervisor on the head just hard enough to make her point clear.

"Ouch…Lenalee, how could you do this to your brother?" Komui pouted, like a child who couldn't get what he wanted.

"Enough fooling around, now time to get back to work!" Reever said irritably, pulling Komui by the back of his coat. He knew that Komui caused all these ruckus in an attempt escape from the horrifying workload that is currently waiting at his desk.

"You're cruel, Chief section Reever…and who are you people?" Komui asked, finally noticing a certain quartet.

"This is Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona and that grumpy looking person in black is-" Fay said smoothly as if nothing happened, gesturing at each person respectively. Kurogane, being observant as usual, realised he'd better introduces himself or the magician would come up with some other nickname for him.

"Kurogane"

"and this is Mokona and I'm Fay. Eh? Kuro-rin doesn't like his nicknames anymore?" Fay finished his introductions and proceeded to playfully poke Kurogane's cheek.

"I see…how did you all managed to get into the order? "

"This will sound a little weird but we actually got here with Mokona transporting us." Syaoran answered politely.

"_Komui"_

"What is it, Hevlaska?" Komui asked speaking to the exorcist.

"_The innocence are reacting, could you bring the newcomers to me? The innocence only reacted after their arrival."_

"I got it," Komui answered, turning his attention back to Syaoran and the others, "We'll ask the questions later, meanwhile, follow me." Setting off at a brisk pace.

~End of Chapter 1~

* * *

Note:

1) I know that the scene with the banana peel was totally random but I kind of got this idea from watching OHSHC.

2) Nii-san/Onii-san means older brother in japanese.

This is my first fic. I hope you all enjoyed it ^^. Please read and review.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Recap**_

* * *

_"**Komui" **_

_"**What is it, Hevlaska?" Komui asked speaking to the exorcist.**_

_"**The innocence are reacting, could you bring the newcomers to me? The innocence only reacted after their arrival."**_

_"**I got it," Komui answered, turning his attention back to Syaoran and the others, "We'll ask the questions later, meanwhile, follow me." Setting off at a brisk pace.**_

* * *

The group exchanged glances with each other, wondering why Komui had asked them to follow him. They started following Komui, except Kurogane.

"Wait, why should we follow you?" Kurogane asked, looking at Komui.

"Right now, there's no time to argue but I can definitely assure you that you aren't in any sort of danger unless you stand on the side of the Earl." Komui explained, quickening his pace.

"Hey, who the-"

"Let's follow him!!!" Fay said cheefully.

"How would you know if these guys can be trusted?!" Kurogane snapped.

"Heh, did you forget, one of Mokona's 108 secret skills could actually tell if a person could be trusted, Kuro-pipi?"

"It's Kurogane!"

"Kurogane is so cruel; he forgot his idol has powerful skills." Mokona pretended to sound hurt.

"You're not my idol!"

"Umm…Kurogane-san, Fay-san, are you guys coming?" Syaoran asked.

"We're right behind you." Mokona replied as she jumped onto Fay's shoulder.

Kanda sighed, thinking that everything was over and was about to go back to his room for a peaceful meditation, when Komui stopped and called him,

"Oh, before I forget, Kanda, can you tag along as well?" Komui asked.

"Che…"

There goes his chance of meditation.

* * *

As the group walked along the dimly lit corridors towards Hevelaska's place, Allen couldn't help but wonder how did Syaoran and the other newcomers managed to get pass all the security that are used to guard the Order from any attack. Ever since the akuma invasion and level 4 attack, security in the black order have been increased.

"What are you thinking about, Allen-kun?" Lenalee asked, noticing the boy's expression.

"I have been wondering how Syaoran and the others are able to get into the Order without anyone noticing."

"Yeah…that's strange."

Before the pair can continue their conversation, Komui suddenly stepped in between the two of them, indirectly indicating that Allen can't get close to Lenalee.

"_Just as I thought, Komui is still mad at me…"_ Allen thought.

The others were practically sweatdropping at Komui's sudden actions, Syaoran and the others were surprised that Komui had a really serious sister complex.

"_His overprotectiveness is worse than I thought…at least Touya wasn't as bad as him…"_ Syaoran thought, trying to imagine what if Touya also had a sister complex that is similar to Komui. He shuddered inwardly at the thought of it.

"I've been wondering about this for a while now, where are you guys from?" Allen asked Syaoran, trying to minimize the awkwardness that has formed since Komui stepped in between him and Lenalee.

"Sakura and I are from Clow country, Kurogane is from Nihon and Fay-san is from a country called Celes" Syaoran explained.

"Eh? Clow country? Celes? I've never heard of them before." Allen replied.

"You're from Nihon?" Kanda asked the ninja, for once he seemed interested in the newcomers. Usually, he wouldn't pay much attention.

"Yeah, you heard of it?"

"I'm from Nihon too."

"Eh?! Then do you know where Princess Tomoyo is?"

"…Princess Tomoyo?"

"Puu! Kuro-rin you're so slow."

"Shut up, white manjuu!" Kurogane snapped irritably.

"Kuro-pipi is angry, nevermind, Mokona will hug Kuro-pipi and make him feel all better." Mokona teased cheekily, glomping Kurogane on the face.

"We're all not from this world, you see, we're traveling through different worlds to find Sakura-chan's feathers. The feathers are actually parts of Sakura's memory." Fay explained calmly.

"That's strange, I never heard of people having their memories in the form of feathers…" Allen replied, getting more confused by the minute.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, Mokona, are there any feathers in this world?" Syaoran asked, turning to Mokona.

"Puu! Leave it to me!" Mokona replied cheerfully and began concentrating.

"How is it? Moko-chan?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"Ah! There are two feathers in this world. One of them is pretty close." Mokona announced rather proudly.

Syaoran and Sakura visibly brightened at the mention of one of the feathers being nearby. However, Allen, and the other black order members looked surprised

"Feathers? I don't recall seeing or anybody mentioning anything about feathers in the order" Lenalee asked.

"Sakura-chan's feathers may be found in certain objects that hold a power strong enough to rival its own." Fay explained.

"I see…"

"Maybe it's in the form of innocence." Lenalee pointed out.

"Innocence?"

"You'll be seeing that in a moment." Komui smiled, leading the group to a machine that somewhat resembled an elevator.

* * *

"Komui, it's been a while." Hevlaska greeted the supervisor, arousing him from his thoughts.

"Hevlaska, here are the newcomers you wanted to see." Komui answered in a serious tone.

Syaoran and the others looked up in awe, they had never seen anything like Hevlaska before.

"Amazing…" Syaoran muttered, his eyes still transfixed on Hevlaska.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Hevlaska." Hevlaska greeted, examining each of them in turn.

"What are you? You don't look human." Kurogane pointed out.

"I'm an exorcist." Hevlaska answered, her hands reaching out to Kurogane, pulling him towards her.

"Hey! Wait a minute! What are you do-" Kurogane demanded, as Hevlaska examined him.

"Kuro-rin is going to be eaten up." Fay called out in a sing-song voice, attempting to further scare the ninja.

As a reflex to defend himself, Kurogane attempted to reach for his katana but found that his hands are unable to move an inch.

"Relax, I'm not going to harm you."

From Hevlaska's body, an innocence piece was steadily traveling up. Still holding Kurogane, her hands reached for the ninja's katana and inserted the innocence piece, resulting a bright glow of greenish light to occur. Everyone momentarily shielded their eyes from the temporary brightness. As, the brightness faded, Hevlaska returned Kurogane onto the floor and turned her attention towards Komui.

"Komui, I have already inserted innocence into his katana. Synchro-ratio is 87 percent."

"Synchro-ratio? What's that? And what did you do with my katana?" a rather confused Kurogane asked.

"Synchro-ratio is the reading of the lifeline of your anti-akuma weapon activation. The lower the number, the harder it is for the user to activate it." Reever explained.

"Anti-akuma weapon?"

"Your katana is an example of an anti-akuma weapon. It can destroy akuma." Reever calmly further explained to the still confused ninja.

"Mekkyo!"

Syaoran, Kurogane and Fay all turned toward Sakura's direction, who was held by Hevlaska as the exorcist tried to check the synchro-ratio. Suddenly, the innocence piece started to melt into liquid. Gradually, the innocence slowly formed its own shape, in the form of a revolver.

The revolver was black and it was elaborately designed with gold linings. On the each side of the revolver, a feather was engraved. Surprised that the feather didn't enter her body, Sakura reached for the revolver. Allen, Lenalee and Kanda were surprised to see the innocence reacting in this manner, it was the first time that innocence had formed an anti-akuma weapon through its own will.

"Synchro-ratio, 88 percent" Hevlaska announced as she lowered Sakura down and picked Fay up.

Fay's innocence turned out to be an equipment type, just like Kurogane's innocence, his synchro-ratio was the same.

When Syaoran's turn came, the innocence type was also an equipment type and Hevlaska had inserted the innocence into his sword, just like she did with Kurogane's. However the synchro-ratio was…

"90 percent."

Every one of them were surprised at high synchro-ratio since until now, there wasn't anyone who was able to achieve this when they synchronized with innocence for the first time.

"Amazing…" Allen said.

"Yeah, especially what Sakura's innocence did and Syaoran-kun's synchro-ratio" Lenalee agreed, turning to face Allen.

"Yeah…"

Currently, Komui was too busy to pay any attention to the pair as he was telling the tsubasa quartet about the ongoing war with the earl. Reever too assisted with the explanation. As for Kanda, he was leaning on one of the railings observing the tsubasa quartet, silently thinking.

"Ah! Kurogane-san, since your innocence is all ready for battle, you can accompany Kanda-kun on his upcoming mission." Komui said in his child-like voice.

"What?!"

Kurogane and Kanda both looked at each other then back at Komui.

"Komui, I don't babysit newcomers." Kanda said threateningly, his hand on the sword handle.

"I don't really work with immature brats." Kurogane, glancing at Kanda.

"Eh? But you two are from Japan…you must have a lot in common." Komui pouted. Suddenly, he found himself facing two tips from two different blades.

"We have nothing in common!" Kanda and Kurogane said at the same time.

"Puu! They are definitely the same."

"Shut up! You white rabbit." Kanda was starting to get a little irritated by Mokona.

"Tee hee, he's as fierce as Kuro-pon." Mokona said to Fay.

Fay decided to play along. "Of course, Mokona, he's probably as violent too."

"First illusion: Hellish insects."

Kanda unsheathed mugen, allowing the insects to go after Fay and Mokona. Rather than standing there, wishing that they had not offended the samurai, both Fay and Mokona dodged with practiced ease. To be specific, Fay was the only one dodging while Mokona sat on his shoulder.

Allen, Lenalee, Syaoran and Sakura looked at the scene in front of them. No one had tried to stop Kanda from unleashing his attack on Fay and Mokona for they didn't want to be at the receiving end of Kanda's hellish insects.

"You know, both of them claim that they don't seem similar but they actually are similar." Allen pointed out.

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"This also means that there probably be two more persons calling me moyashi…"

"…Allen-kun…" Lenalee sighed, trying to get the white-haired exorcist out of his temporary depression.

* * *

_**A/N: So here's chapter 2...This might be SLIGHTLY different from the previous second chapter due to some editing I did...but no worries, I've only corrected the grammar errors and added a few extra lines every now and then...As for Kanda and Kurogane, their relationship will improve as the story progresses (no yaoi intended) and Lavi's going to make an appearance pretty soon, along with other characters...*hint hint***_

_**Disclaimer: I do not or DGM or TRC, both belong to Hoshino and CLAMP respectively.**_

_**Please read and review =)**_


	3. Chapter 3

_

* * *

_

A/N: Thank you to all those who have reviewed so far. Here's chapter 3 and there's a few things that I need to mention.

_I know that this should be at the very first chapter but I keep forgetting to mention this. The setting of this story is just before the ghost arc for the DGM timeline and for TRC, the setting is in between the record country arc and the Tokyo arc. (I will post this on the first chapter as well.)_

_Both would be manga based._

_Disclaimer: I do not own -Man or Tsubasa Chronicles, I only own the plot of this story…and the title =)_

_And lastly, enjoy the story!_

* * *

"Walker!"

Allen flinched slightly at the mention of his name by an all too familiar voice. Inspector Howard Link is looking for him again. Earlier today, Allen had snuck out of his room while the inspector is still asleep, with the intention to have an early meal. But due to unforeseen circumstances, Allen was only able to make it to the cafeteria at a later time.

"Yes?" Allen answered, peering from behind a huge pile of food.

"I was asked to keep an eye on you 24/7, like I told you before, do not sneak away from my sight"

"But that's your job"

"You-"

"Good Morning, Allen." A sleepy voice yawned.

"Ah, Lavi! It's almost noon. Didn't sleep well last night?" Allen asked, turning his attention away from the inspector, munching on his food at the same time.

"I hardly slept, that old panda forced me to memorise a thick set of history archives from the library by today." Lavi complained, as he sat down next to Allen.

"Oh, I see, do you want anything to eat?" Allen asked, offering a plate filled with yakiniku. (_A/N: it's Lavi's favorite food…_)

"Hmm, I guess some yakiniku is fine…Tha-…S-S-STIRKE!!!"

Allen and Link looked at Lavi, wondering whether he's been too stressed due to the workload Bookman expected him to do. Then, the both of them turned to the direction where Lavi is looking at currently and they sighed.

"I should have guessed…"

Sakura, along with Syaoran, Fay and Kurogane had just been led into the cafeteria by Lenalee and Kanda. Sakura was wearing a uniform that is similar to Lenalee's previous exorcist uniform except that the sleeves are not long at the ends and Hope, her innocence, is in a pouch which fitted perfectly on her thigh.

"She's totally my type!!" Lavi exclaimed excitedly, rushing forward and grabbing Sakura's hands.

Sakura is rather taken aback by Lavi's sudden actions and didn't know how to react. Syaoran, on the other hand, is starting to feel slightly jealous about Lavi holding Sakura's hands. This was the first time anyone had openly expressed any interest for Sakura. Throughout their journey, the guys who took a liking to Sakura are those who were up to no good, which gave Syaoran enough reason to punch them in the face or prevent them from getting any closer to Sakura. However, even though Lavi had no intention of hurting Sakura, Syaoran had to restrain himself from giving him a punch.

"Lavi, could you stop it already?" Lenalee sighed, separating the pair.

"Yes, yes, by the way, who are they? New exorcists?"

"They're only going to be temporary exorcists."

"Heh, that's interesting." Lavi remarked, turning his attention back at Syaoran and the others, "I'm Lavi, bookman junior" he introduced himself cheerfully.

"I'm Syaoran and this is Sakura, Fay, Mokona and-"

"Kuro-pon!" two rather cheeky voices supplied.

"It's Kurogane!!! I'm gonna knock those silly nicknames out your minds right now!" Kurogane said heatedly, taking out his katana, welding it threateningly.

Before Kurogane could do anything, Lenalee stepped in saying, "That's enough, don't create a chaos here."

Kurogane considered what Lenalee said for a moment before putting back his katana, Souhi, into its sheath. Adjusting the collar of his exorcist uniform, Kurogane felt that the fabric of the uniform was pretty light. This meant it's easier to move about when there's a fight.

"There's Allen-kun sitting over there! Hey Allen!" Fay pointed at the white-haired boy currently absorbed with eating the huge pile of food.

Hearing someone calling his name, Allen looked up and saw Fay waving to him. Due to his friendly nature, he waved back.

"Who are they?" Link asked, turning back, glancing at the newcomers.

"They're going to be the new exorcists. Or that's what I think I heard." Allen answered, paying more attention on filling his stomach rather than answering Link's question.

Link decided not to question any further knowing full well that whenever the boy is hungry, food is always his topmost priority. Well, even though at times there are exceptions, it would be quite rare that Allen would leave his food behind.

"How did it go?" Allen asked Lenalee, as she sat down beside Allen.

_

* * *

_

Flashback

_After Hevlaska checked each of their synchro-ratio, Komui decided that it's now time to introduce them to the next stage that is necessary for every new exorcist._

"_Now, it's time to check your innocence!" Komui announced._

"_I thought we just had it checked by Hevlaska-san." Sakura pointed out._

"_No, no, Sakura-chan, there's another stage to clear before the weapon can be officially used" Komui said, with an evil glint in his eyes._

"_If your weapon is an equipment type, you don't have to worry about anything. If your innocence type is parasitic, then it's going to be painful…" Allen explained, shuddering at the memory where Komui first repaired his innocence without explaining it to him beforehand._

"_Ah! Kanda-kun and Kurogane, Reever will brief you on your mission details in my office. Well, I better go check on the innocence!!" Komui mentioned before running off._

_Reever sighed and said, "You've heard what he said, Kanda, Kurogane, follow me…Ah, Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona and Fay, you can tag along if you want."_

"_Puu! This is going to be interesting! Let's go!!!"_

_As the group made their way towards Komui's room, Sakura noticed that a certain white-haired boy had been missing for quite some time now._

"_Lenalee-san, where did Allen-kun go?"_

"_Most likely the cafeteria…it's his favorite place."_

"_I have been wondering about this for quite a while, why Allen-kun's hair is white and he also have a funny looking scar?"Fay asked._

Lenalee lowered her eyes slightly before replying, "..._Allen-kun tried to bring back his father back to life by turning him into an akuma…the scar was a curse given by his father which enables Allen-kun to see akuma souls and distinguish akumas from humans. The color of his hair came from the shock of killing his father."_

"_I see…"_

* * *

"_I'm back!!!" Komui announced in his childish voice, peering through a door._

"_Sakura-chan, Syaoran-kun, Kurogane-san, I've checked your innocence and they are okay!" Komui said, giving a thumbs-up sign. _

_As the weapons are handed back to Sakura, Syaoran and Kurogane respectively, Lenalee asked, "Sakura-san, have you come up with a name for your innocence?"_

_Sakura thought for a moment._

"_Hope." Sakura replied._

* * *

"Sakura-chan, Syaoran-kun and Kurogane's innocence had already been checked by Komui nii-san but Fay-san's weapon would take a while to make." Lenalee explained.

"Oh, I see…"

Meanwhile, Syaoran and the others are queuing up to place their order for food, Lavi tagged along to recommend the various delicious foods that the cook, Jeryy can make. Syaoran, Sakura, Fay and Kurogane listened to Lavi long list of recommendation, getting hungrier by the minute.

When Syaoran's turn came for him to place his order, Jeryy the cook turned and looked at him.

"Oh? Looks like another cute one has joined the team, I hope you'll have an appetite because I can cook anything." Jeryy introduced himself, leaning closer to Syaoran who tried to inch away without being too obvious.

"I'm Syaoran…"

"That's a cute name and you're rather polite too…Ah, ok then, I'll be cooking for you my signature dish." Jeryy decided, before Syaoran could take his order.

For Sakura, Fay, Kurogane and Mokona, Jeryy also treated them pretty much like the way he treated Syaoran and decided their meals for them. As for Kurogane, he decided that soba would be the best choice for him.

"Yuu, is your next mission in Germany?" Lavi asked as the samurai sat down.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me by my first name? Idiot rabbit!" he snapped.

"Can I call you Yuu-chan?" Fay asked. Apparently, he had heard the short conversation between Lavi and Kanda.

"…don't even think about it." Kanda said threateningly.

"Yuu-chan is getting angry…" the magician teased.

Before Kanda could even take out mugen, he felt something(or someone…) tugging at his ponytail.

"Swaying, swaying, I'm just like a balloon~~" Mokona sang, swinging on Kanda ponytail.

All thoughts on getting revenge on the magician momentarily cleared and without thinking, he took out mugen.

"Kanda, you just might want to be careful, otherwise your hair is going to be shorter." Allen pointed out.

"Baka moyashi! I don't need you to tell me that!" he snapped, putting mugen back.

"It's Allen! Stop calling me moyashi!"

"Heh, all of you are so interesting, do all of you have nicknames? Moyashi-kun?" Fay asked.

"It's ALLEN!"

"Please stop fighting here." Syaoran tried to stop the three-way-argument that is about to surface.

"Hmm, the only one with a lot of nicknames here, is Kuro-wanwan…why don't I help to come up with some nicknames for all of you?" Fay asked, looking in the direction of Lenalee, Syaoran and Sakura.

"Stop calling me with those silly nicknames!!"

"What is it? Kuro-wanwan?"

Now, it's a four-way argument.

Syaoran tried to stop them but his efforts were futile as Kanda, Allen, and Kurogane were too caught up with arguing among each other. Well, Fay was merely more of teasing the three rather than arguing. Lavi too tried to stop them but instead got threatened by both Allen and Kanda.

Not wanting to be further involved, Lavi stepped next to Syaoran and said "It's no use…"

"Lavi-san…"

"Let's enjoy watching them argue!" Mokona suggested happily, sitting on top of Lavi's head.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Lenalee also moved away from the center of the argument and stood at the other end of the cafeteria.

"Here they go again…" Lenalee sighed.

"Eh? Do they always argue like this?" Sakura asked.

"Most of the time they do…"

"Fay-san and Kurogane-san also argue almost every day…I guess Allen-kun and Kanda-san are similar to them in a way." Sakura smiled.

"I agree…"

* * *

In the end, the argument had only ended when Jeryy the cook couldn't stand to see his kitchen or the cafeteria being used as a fighting arena and used a frying pan to hit Allen, Kanda, Fay and Kurogane on the head.

"If you guys ever want to create a chaos, please refrain from coming here!" Jeryy fumed, crossing his arms.

"Sorry…" all four of them apologized.

"Hmph!"

* * *

Along one of the dark alleys where no one ever bothered to walk, a man stood there, waiting. However, if anyone had a glimpse of him, he/she would consider him being not human at all. With a sinister smile that never seems to fade, most people would probably describe him as someone who looks like the villain from a child's storybook, that is, if they ever saw him, that is. The figure stood, waiting patiently, carrying an umbrella which has a pumpkin at the top, sheltering himself from the pouring rain. Then, another figure appeared, strolling towards the waiting figure.

"You're late, Tyki-pon."

"Sorry about that, Earl and could you please stop using that nickname?" asked a bespectacled man dressed in ragged clothes, following the Earl who had stepped into the dimly lit corridor which somehow appeared.

"I'm afraid not, Tyki-pon, it's sounds cuter that way. Could you also please refrain from being in this form when you're here?"

"As you wish, Earl" Tyki sighed, transforming into his noah self, who was much better dressed than his human self.

"Much better, now come." The Earl said, leading the way, with Tyki following not far behind.

"Tyki! It's been a long time since I last saw you." Road greeted, giving him a hug.

"Road, it's just had been a week…"

"But a week is too long…" Road whined.

"Road, let go of your uncle and let's enjoy our dinner." Cyril coaxed his daughter.

"Yes, father."

The Earl, Tyki and Road took their places at the table, where akuma maidservants served them the appetizers, main course and dessert. When the dessert is served, Lulubell asked, "Master, you didn't just call us for dinner right?"

"That's right, there something all of you need to know and do something about it." The earl said, finishing his the last of his dessert, setting the spoon on the table.

* * *

A/N: Chapter 3 is done! This is the first time I left a cliffhanger here…but I think all of you can pretty much guess what is going to happen in the next chapter...but that's only going to be the first part of the next chapter.

Another thing, I'm using the official spellings for the characters names except for Cyril's name…I'm not sure if this spelling is the official version…does anybody know the official spelling for his name?

**_EDIT (PLEASE READ THIS): I hope you all don't mind the names for Sakura's innocence…I couldn't come up with any other names…by the way, Syaoran and Kurogane's innocence will still be called Hien and Souhi respectively, just like in the original series. That's the only major edit which I did...many thanks to omi-chan-neko for this (^-^)_**

Reviews are hugely appreciated. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Recap_**

_**Lulubell asked, "Master, you didn't just call us for dinner right?"**_

"_**That's right, there something all of you need to know and do something about it." The earl said, finishing his the last of his dessert, setting the spoon on the table.**_

* * *

The noahs at the table too were finishing up their desserts. When they heard what the Earl mentioned, all of them all looked up, alert.

"What's that? Have you managed to locate where the heart is?" Road asked excitedly.

"Not quite, I had just discovered that a rather strong power source has awakened recently." The Earl replied placing his hands on the table, in a business-like manner.

"Eh?! It may be the heart." Devit pointed out, putting his legs on the table in an ungraceful manner.

"Hi! It may be the heart!" Jasdero echoed.

"I don't want to jump into conclusions just yet, it yet again might be a dummy heart." The Earl explained.

"Just like Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee's innocence?"

"Yes..."

"Master, then what you want us to do?" Lulubell asked.

From his pocket, the Earl took out a few of poker cards. These are not ordinary poker cards though, there's something different in each of them.

"Pick a card." He said simply.

All the other noahs looked rather amused at the Earl's new tactic of giving out assignments. Usually, the Earl will personally give out the cards to each of the noahs themselves. Spreading out the cards to a fan shape, he said, "Take your pick."

Each of the noahs picked out a card, looking at the mission that they are supposed to do respectively.

"Earl, why didn't you give out the cards personally? You always do that." Cyril asked, looking at the card he picked.

"I think this will be better since you all chose your own assignments instead of me choosing for you. Furthermore, the last time Tyki, Jasdevi and Skin are unable to successfully accomplish their missions. Now, there's no reason to fail." The Earl turned his gaze towards the three, who gulped, knowing that the Earl wasn't too happy about what happened the last time.

"There's also one more thing I need you all to do…" The Earl bent down to pick up something.

The noahs peered over with interest, wondering what the Earl had in store. Then, he took out a few books that strangely resembled homework. To be exact, the pile of books looked exactly like Road's homework.

"Not again…" Tyki groaned, lightly smacking his palm onto his face.

"Everybody, thank you for helping me with my homework!" Road said cheerfully.

"Hi! Why do we have to do all your homework?" Jasdero asked, raising his fists in protest.

"That's right, why can't you do your own homework?" Devit pointed an accusing finger at Road.

"That's because I don't know how to do them." Road replied in an innocent sort of way.

"Everybody please take a book each and help Road with her homework." The Earl said, pushing the stack of books forward.

Tyki and Jasdevi were the only ones who complained as they each took a book while the Earl, Lulubell and Cyril didn't seem to mind. All of them opened up to the intended page and started writing, except Tyki and Jasdevi, who were dumbfounded by the questions in the book as they did not have much education in their younger days. However, both the Earl and Cyril were both writing at top speed, it is difficult to tell who has a faster writing speed. Lulubell was the only one writing at a normal speed. Road happily watched as the others did her homework then she spotted Lero, the Earl's umbrella.

"Lero, help me with my homework please?"

"B-B-But Road-tama-"

The flustered umbrella tried to persuade the noah that there's no way that he could help with any of the homework but his efforts are futile. Road playfully ignored his explanations and tried to grab the umbrella which dodged narrowly out of the way. Somehow, this ended up into a game of tag where Road chased Lero all over the place while the others sat at the table either doing or staring at Road's homework questions.

* * *

Back at the black order, Kanda and Kurogane are making their final preparations before setting off on their mission. As they packed, three persons were hanging around them, watching them pack. However, with the three of them watching at them pack with mischievous expressions on their faces and not uttering a word, as if planning something that may very well irritate the ninja and samurai. Kurogane found it more unsettling as minutes passed. On the other hand, Kanda was getting more irritated of their presence alone.

"Will you three stop staring?!" Kurogane snapped.

Kanda was glad that Kurogane had made his point before him. He too was getting irritated. _"Maybe I was wrong about him earlier."_ Kanda thought to himself.

"Heh, Kuro-puu, is getting irritated already?" Lavi asked teasingly, using one of the many nicknames that Fay had taught him earlier on.

"It's Kurogane!"

"Puu! Kuro-sama is getting mad again!"

"That's right." Lavi added, smirking.

"You…get back here!" Kurogane shouted as both Mokona and Lavi ran as soon as he said the previous comment and chased after the pair.

As Kurogane chased Mokona and Lavi around the room, Fay decided to tease Kanda instead, who had been rather silent.

"Yuu-chan, are you done packing?"

No answer came from the samurai, who chose to ignore that comment.

Fay noticed that this did not work. So he decided to use another method which he, in his opinion, thinks that it'll work.

"tyun tyun.....psh psh" Fay made sound effects as he lightly pushed on Kanda's head.

Sure enough, Kanda took out his mugen swiftly and pointed it at the magician's neck. Fay only looked surprised for a moment, then returned to his normal happy-go-lucky expression and said, "Oops, looks like I've made Yuu-chan angry."

As soon as he said that, Fay moved with lightning speed out of harms' way of getting hurt by mugen. However, Kanda was too angry too notice that for he started to chase the magician all over the place. Just like Kurogane did with Lavi and Mokona.

* * *

Meanwhile, at another part of the black order, Allen and Lenalee decided to show Syaoran and Sakura around. Link was also there so as to keep a close watch on Allen as Leverrier had instructed. However, Link had a feeling that he's somewhat of an extra even though neither Allen nor Lenalee had shown any indication that they are a couple. _"Maybe it's because of Komui"_ he thought.

Link's eyes moved over to Syaoran and Sakura who he can tell that they clearly are a couple, Syaoran hands are currently holding Sakura's hands. Whether did Syaoran realize that he holding Sakura's hands, Link isn't too sure.

"And here's where you'll sleep, Syaoran and Sakura, your room is just next to Syaoran's" Allen pointed at both of the room doors respectively.

Both Syaoran and Sakura looked at each other and smiled, glad their rooms are just next to each other.

"Oh! What about Fay-san and Kurogane-san rooms?" Sakura asked, remembering about the magician and ninja.

"Don't worry, their rooms are over there." Lenalee answered, pointing to the two doors that are slightly further away from their rooms, separated by a corridor.

"That corridor would lead you to the library." Lenalee continued.

"Really? Can I take a look at it?" Syaoran asked, suddenly feeling excited about the library.

"Syaoran-kun is an archaeologist, he used to spend time with his dad travelling to different worlds to excavation sites. He's really interested in the history of different worlds." Sakura explained, smiling at Syaoran, who smiled back.

Syaoran knew that Sakura remembered this because of what he had said to her during the time where he, Sakura, Fay and Kurogane had fallen into a strange world where everything doesn't seem real at all. Although he is aware of this, deep down in his heart, Syaoran felt a little hurt as Sakura did not remember it due to their relationship in the past. Even though he knew that Sakura could no longer remember him in the past, a small part of him still wished that she could. However, he had sacrificed their relationship as a price in order to save Sakura by travelling to different worlds and collect her feathers. To Syaoran, sacrificing their relationship was the least he could do to save Sakura's life. All he wanted now is for Sakura to be happy.

* * *

As they reached the library, Syaoran was amazed with the amount of books that the Black Order has. Tons of books were arranged neatly on the shelves while a few other books which are piled up on the desks of the scientists researching in there. Syaoran reached out to take one of the books which happened to be about the history of the 18th century, this made him curious, causing him to flip open the book.

"That's rare, I seldom see anyone your age so interested in history."

Syaoran jumped slightly at the voice. Turning back towards the sound of the voice, he saw a rather short man with the most peculiar eyes that forcefully reminded him of a panda.

"I do not have a name, you can call me bookman." Bookman introduced himself, extending his hand.

"A-ah, nice to meet you, I'm Syaoran...and this is Sakura." Syaoran shook his hand, sounding a little flustered.

"Hey, old panda, getting acquainted with Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan?"

Bookman did not even bother to respond. Almost immediately after he heard Lavi calling him 'old panda', Bookman sent a flying kick towards Lavi's head.

"O-ouch!"

"That'll teach you not to call me that again!"

"Oh, Syaoran, would you be interested to join us Bookmen?" Bookman asked, turning his attention towards the boy.

"Gramps! You can't be doing that?! Your own apprentice is here?!"

"Shut up, I'd rather have Syaoran as apprentice."

"What?!"

"Actually, I don't think I can accept this job..." Syaoran reasoned politely.

"Kid, don't take me seriously, I'm just pulling his leg." Bookman whispered to Syaoran who bent down to listen.

"But this isn't a good idea..." Syaoran protested.

Bookman ignored his last comment and continued to talk about how Syaoran should join him as a new apprentice. However, Syaoran's expression is getting more and more flustered as the conversation went on. Lavi also had the same expression on his face as well.

"Maybe I can reconsider about taking Syaoran...on one condition."

"What is it?" Lavi asked eagerly.

"You'll have to finish memorizing these by tomorrow afternoon." Bookman replied, placing two extremely thick books in front of Lavi.

"What?!" Lavi exclaimed, but he remembered what Bookman had said. Sighing in defeat, he took the two books and walked out of the library.

"Bookman-san is really good at making Lavi-san do his work." Fay said, after Lavi left the room.

"Yeah, if I don't threaten him once in a while, that lazy rabbit would become lazier." Bookman said, smirking.

Little did the group know, Lavi had heard everything. _"Damn that old panda! Using this method to get me to do my assignments."_ He thought, _"but not bad, you won't get me the next time"_ Lavi smiled, walking off to memorize the books that Bookman had set for him.

Both Kanda and Kurogane were relieved that Lavi had gone off. At least there's one less person who'll get on their nerves.

"Bookman, where's Komui?" Kanda asked.

"He's in his office." Bookman answered.

Kanda set off briskly towards Komui's office, closely followed by Kurogane. The rest of the group watched as the two of them set off.

"Psst, Allen!"

"What is it, Johnny?" Allen whispered back to the scientist.

"You better not hold hands with Lenalee here. If Komui sees it, you're in trouble."

Allen looked down and remembered that he had been holding Lenalee's hand ever since they entered the library. Earlier on, he felt that holding Lenalee's hand seemed like a good idea. As he linked his hand with Lenalee's, she looked at Allen, slightly surprised for a moment, then smiled at the gesture, lightly squeezing his hand. Blushing slightly, he immediately let go of Lenalee's hands, causing her to look at Allen who gave her an apologetic look.

At the same time, Kanda and Kurogane reached Komui's office where they found the latter chatting on the phone, obviously procrastinating as usual while Reever shouted at him to sign a stack of paperwork.

"Oh? Kanda, Kurogane, you've arrived." Komui said, noticing them.

"Just get to the point." Kurogane said.

"That right, could you put these on before going on your missions?" Komui said, holding out two communicator earrings.

Kanda and Kurogane each took one communicator and wore it.

"I heard from Fay-san that Mokona act as a translator for you all. So, these earrings can help to keep in touch with Mokona's ability no matter how far you are and that's all." Komui explained.

After Kanda and Kurogane left the office, Reever was about to once again yell at his supervisor to get back to his work when the latter deliberately picked up the phone once again, pretending to make a call to the Asian branch HQ.

"Kuro-daddy and Yu-chan are setting off now. Have a safe trip!" Fay said as he spotted him and Kanda.

"SHUT UP!" both of them shouted, walking off before Fay and Mokona could tease them any further.

"Finally, I'm getting some peace away from those three." Kurogane said as they left the order.

"Yeah, it's now all peace and quiet." Kanda agreed.

* * *

_A/N: Here's chapter 4! Hope you've have enjoyed it! About the part where Sakura mentioned that Syaoran and his dad used to travel around different worlds, that was from the Chibi arc from the anime. Chapter 5 will be about Kanda and Kurogane's mission…_

_Please read & review! Reviews are appreciated. =)_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Recap **_

"_Kuro-daddy and Yu-chan are setting off now. Have a safe trip!" Fay said as he spotted him and Kanda._

"_SHUT UP!" both of them shouted, walking off before Fay and Mokona could tease them any further._

"_Finally, I'm getting some peace away from those three." Kurogane said as they left the order._

"_Yeah, it's now all peace and quiet." Kanda agreed._

* * *

Throughout the journey to Berlin, both Kurogane and Kanda exchanged few words between each other. With the exception of Kurogane getting Kanda to explain in brief on the mission details written on a black folder that was given, which involved something about a house that is said to be haunted and those that went in never came out.

"We're here."

Kurogane looked around observing the bustling town of Berlin, where people are seen going about their respective everyday lives. Men walking around to their respective destinations, women carrying baskets filled with groceries were taking their time to shop, picking out the freshest ingredients that will be on the dinner table, well-cooked and ready to be eaten. Children could be seen running around, playing, while their mothers do their shopping. In brief, this town did not seem to have anything strange going on. This puzzled Kurogane.

"There's nothing wrong with this town, are you sure we are at the right town?" Kurogane asked, checking through the folder for any information that might have been overlooked.

"We'll just have to ask around first." Kanda sighed.

However, this was easier said than done, all of the people they have asked had either ran away, giving them frightened looks or replied with 'I don't what you're talking about.' in a rather cold tone.

After a few hours, Kanda and Kurogane gave up on asking the townspeople on the rumored haunted house. Finding a deserted spot, the two exorcists slumped down to sit and rest before attempting to ask around for more information.

"Whatever had happened in that house must be really terrifying, none of the people seem to be unwilling to give any information."

"Yeah..." Kanda agreed.

"Why don't we try asking that old lady over there?" Kurogane suggested, looking in the direction where the old lady stood, her back facing them.

Without answering the ninja, Kanda stood and walked up to the old lady.

"Excuse me, do you know anything about a house being haunted?" he asked, bending down to the old lady's height.

"Oh? It's you again! It's been a while." The old lady greeted, recognizing Kanda almost at once.

Kanda too seemed surprised but regained his composure and went straight to the point. "Do you know anything about-"

"the house that is said to be haunted? Yes, yes, that house only became 'haunted' a few months ago. Some people wanted to demolish the house since nobody stayed in that house since about a hundred years ago." The old lady explained.

"So those people tried to enter the house and never came out?" Kurogane guessed.

"Not exactly, as the demolishers prepared to knock down the building, a strong gust of wind came. That gust of wind was so strong that it's almost similar to a hurricane. All of the demolishers were spooked about this incident and refused to go on with the demolishing of the house. Shortly after that incident, a group of men entered the house, they went in and never came out." the old woman explained.

"Do you know where the house is?" Kurogane asked the old woman.

"Oh, just walk down this road and turn left at the first crossroad."

"Got it, thanks for telling us the directions." Kanda said shortly and started heading towards the intended direction.

"H-hey, hey are you sure you are going there? People who went in never came out! You may not be so lucky like the last time. Wait! Are you even listening? Listen to your elders once in a while!" the old lady ranted on, her warnings falling on deaf ears.

Neither Kanda nor Kurogane had paid any attention to the old lady's warnings. After thanking her, both of them walked on the path she directed. As they walked further away, the warnings of the old lady became softer and softer till it can't be heard anymore.

"You know this old woman?" Kurogane asked breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I met her once." Kanda replied, not bothering to elaborate.

* * *

As they walked down the deserted path, a house came into view. It was old and run-down. Cobwebs and dust were seen at almost every inch of the house's exterior including the windows that hung on its hinges. Even the surrounding trees had a withered look to it though the weather seems to be fine. A few crows were also flying nearby, cawing loudly. Even the air seems to be still, not even a slight breeze, making the entire area to have an impression that it's dead. This gives anyone a sense of foreboding about the place.

However, for the case for Kurogane and Kanda, they were unfazed by the eerie look of the house and its surroundings. They walked towards the house as if it was no different from other houses. The moment they reached the doorstep, the door creaked open automatically as of it knew that there are people who wanted to enter the house.

Surprisingly, whatever the samurai and the ninja saw when they were outside, wasn't what they saw when they entered the house and into the living room. Instead, the interior of the house was spick and span. Everything was neatly placed and dusted as if someone had been living here all this time. In the living room, there were various portraits hanging on the wall. Both of them assumed that all these people in the portraits were the previous inhabitants of the house when they still lived.

"What?" Kanda muttered, surprised at the sight before him.

"Maybe it's the innocence that the black order is talking about is causing all this." Kurogane guessed.

"No, it's possible that akuma are behind this." Kanda answered, walking out of the room.

"Che…that's troublesome."

After the two of them left, one of the portraits hanging on the wall started glowing eerily, it contained a rather withered looking man whose expression gradually turned from calm and expressionless to angry as he slowly turn his gaze towards the door where Kanda and Kurogane had just left.

* * *

Back at the black order, Syaoran was in his room, currently engrossed in one of the books he had gotten from the science department library earlier. He was so engrossed that he didn't notice that someone had entered his room. Until…

"Syaoran-kun?"

Syaoran jumped slightly at the mention of his name but as soon as he realized that it was just Sakura, he relaxed.

"Is there anything wrong?" Syaoran asked.

"No, Komui-san just wanted me to get you. It seems we're getting a mission like Kurogane-san." Sakura smiled.

Before Syaoran could reply, Sakura took his wrist and happily pulled him out of the room.

"Syaoran-kun, take this as a break from reading." Sakura said, causing him to be a little taken aback initially but when Syaoran remembered the time where Sakura just did almost the exact same thing, he smiled.

_

* * *

_

Flashback

_A nine-year-old Syaoran was sitting at his father's desk entirely engrossed in trying to decipher the runes on an ancient text that his father had just brought back._

"_Syaoran-kun." Someone whispered into the boy's ear._

"_EH?? Ah, princess, you shouldn't be out running about. If your brother finds out-"_

"_Tee hee, I had his permission." Sakura giggled._

"_B-but-"_

"_No buts. Can you accompany me on my outing? Staying all day long doing archaeology at home is so boring."Sakura pouted, leaving Syaoran with the only option of agreeing to her decision._

_Without waiting for a reply, Sakura took Syaoran's hand and headed for the door excitedly._

"_Syaoran-kun, it's ok to take a little break from your work." Sakura smiled sensing the boy's slight reluctance._

_Syaoran smiled back, understanding her intentions, allowed her to take him to wherever she wanted to go._

_End flashback_

* * *

"Ah, Syaoran-kun, we're wondering when you would show up." Komui said, bringing Syaoran back from his thoughts.

"Sorry for making you wait!" Syaoran apologized.

"No worries, just come over here and sit." Komui said, pointing at the couch where Allen and Lenalee are sitting.

Both Syaoran and Sakura moved over and sat down, wondering about the mission that they are going to be briefed on.

"Now, time to get serious, I want all of you to investigate this phenomenon in Switzerland. Finders are reporting that there's an area there which never stops snowing and strong snowstorms and blizzards prevented any further investigations by them." Komui addressed Allen, Lenalee, Syaoran and Sakura.

"What about Fay-san and Lavi-san?" Sakura asked.

"I've sent them to check on Kanda and Kurogane. It seems that they lost contact with us since yesterday." Komui answered.

"Eh? They are alright. Aren't they?" Syaoran asked worriedly.

"Hopefully, yes."

"Puu! Don't worry, Fay and Lavi will help them out."

"Enough chit-chat for now, time for you to head out for your mission." Komui said, ushering the four of them out of the paper-strewn office, closely followed by Link.

"Komui-san-" Allen started but he was interrupted by Link.

"Let's get on with the mission. You can ask any questions when you're back from the mission." Link said curtly.

"Yes, yes." Allen replied irritably, taking the oar and started rowing the boat.

"Have a safe trip!" Komui shouted, as the boat gradually disappeared from view.

In one of the deserted areas of the forest, a strange black piece of block suddenly appeared out from the ground. Out of it, appeared two figures, one with jet black hair and the other with blond hair.

"Hi! Devit, are we in the right place? Hi!" Jasdero asked his twin.

"Yeah, I think so, the new Ark should be working properly." Devit replied, scanning the area without much interest.

"Hi! There's a house over there! But it looks creepy." Jasdero pointed towards the left, where a house stood.

"Yeah, why did we get this kind of job? But we'll have to do our job, otherwise the Earl is going to be angry again." Devit complained, trudging towards the house.

"Hi! Wait for me, Devit!"

Little did Devit and Jasdevi know, two certain exorcists were also in that same house, currently trapped and unable to leave it.

* * *

_A/N: Here's the 5th chapter! Cliffhanger here, hehe, what happens when Kanda, Kurogane and Jasdevi are stuck in the same creepy house?? Sorry, this chapter is up a little later than usual…school work is just simply piling up! I'll try to post the next chapter ASAP as well…_

_Edit: Like I've said in the third chapter, Syaoran's anti-akuma weapon will still be Hien…same goes for Kurogane._

_Please read and review! =)_


	6. Chapter 6

_****_

A/N: I'm really sorry for not updating this earlier...actually I've finished this chapter about a week ago. I did not upload it back then because I was busy studying for my exams...ok, so now my exams have officially ended and holidays just started for me. =D

_**This will be considerd spoiler-ish but it's necessary to read this before reading this chapter: In this chapter, as Jasdevi enters the respective rooms that Kanda and Kurogane had just entered, Kurogane will notice Devit as Kanda while Kanda recognizes Jasdero as Kurogane. Same goes for Jasdevi. I'll be denoting the dopplegangers in italics.**_

**_Sorry in advance in case somebody got confused on what I had written for this chapter._**

Disclaimer: I do not own DGM or Tsubasa Chronicles, they belong to Hoshino and CLAMP respectively.

Enjoy the chapter!

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Recap

"_Hi! There's a house over there! But it looks creepy." Jasdero pointed towards the left, where a house stood._

"_Yeah, why did we get this kind of job? But we'll have to do our jobs; otherwise the Earl is going to be angry again." Devit complained, trudging towards the house._

"_Hi! Wait for me, Devit!"_

_Little did Devit and Jasdevi know, two certain exorcists were also in that same house, currently trapped and unable to leave it._

* * *

"Devit...this house looks scary..." Jasdero whined

"It's just an old abandoned house with nobody in it, don't be such a coward, Jasdero." Devit sighed as Jasdero rushed behind his back as they reached the garden porch of the house.

However, Jasdero continued to cower behind his twin. Seeing that Jasdero would not be convinced with his words, he continued, "Alright, Jasdero, I'll enter first then..."

Devit walked up to the door, which rather surprisingly, creaked open on its own accord as if it knew that Jasdevi was about to enter its interiors. Devit was slightly shocked. Nevertheless, regained his composure and entered the building.

Jasdero, on the other hand, got more frightened as the door creaked open voluntarily but upon catching a glimpse at the interior, he felt a tingling sense relief and entered the building as well.

"See, Jasdero, there's nothing wrong with this house." Devit said in a concerned tone to his brother.

"Hi! You're right! Now time to look for innocence."

As soon as Jasdero said that, a crashing sound from the upper floor was heard, startling them.

"That might be innocence! Let's go Jasdero!" Devit said rather excitedly, rushing up the stairs.

* * *

"Hey, the upper floor looks normal as well." Kurogane observed, looking around the corridors and the rooms as well.

"Yeah...can you check this room on the right while I check the one on the left," Kanda pointed to each room respectively as he spoke.

As Kanda and Kurogane entered to check the rooms, another two visitors ascended the stairs onto the second floor.

"Jasdero, I'll check this room and you'll check that." Devit instructed. Pointing at the doors that Kurogane and Kanda had entered respectively.

"Hi! Let's get to work!" Jasdero said as he entered the room that Kanda just entered.

Unfortunately, the two exorcists in the rooms did not hear the short conversation between Jasdevi. In their respective rooms, both Kanda and Kurogane were surprised at the interior for it mysteriously became much larger as compared to the original size.

"Eh? If I remember correctly, the room wasn't this big..." Kurogane muttered to himself, walking around, examining the room.

* * *

As soon as he finished searching the room, Kurogane turned and made for the exit, which was no longer there.

"The exit disappeared?! Geez, if there isn't an exit, I'll make one myself. Innocence activate!" Kurogane took out Gin-Ryuu, preparing to slash through in order to make an exit.

Kurogane slashed towards the intended wall and as always, it was a direct hit. A cloud of smoke appeared as the impact made its mark. That got Kurogane hopeful for a bit but as the cloud of smoke cleared, the wall was still intact, and not a single scratch was seen.

On the other hand, Kurogane wasn't at all surprised about the wall being impenetrable, he had been in a lot of situations before whereby his attacks were direct hits but most of his opponents would appear unharmed.

"Che, that's troublesome..." Kurogane grumbled.

"...Jasdero! What are you doing here? I thought you went to check the other room." a familiar voice asked.

Kurogane wasn't expecting this voice to appear since there wasn't any exit. No one was able to enter.

"Hey, how did you get in?" Kurogane asked, ignoring his previous question.

_Kanda _threw him an isn't-it-obvious look before replying, "The door, of course."

Kurogane raised his eyebrows questioningly at _Kanda's_ reply, slightly surprised at his reply and sudden attitude change. Although he only knew the samurai for a few days, Kurogane was observable enough to realize that Kanda wasn't exactly himself.

As for _Kanda_, he mistook Kurogane's questioning look for not understanding what he had just said. In order to indicate what he meant, _Kanda_ turned to point at the door, only to find that it had disappeared.

"Hey, where's the door?!" _Kanda_ asked, starting to panic slightly.

"It disappeared." Kurogane supplied.

The next move that _Kanda_ did was something that Kurogane had never expected him to do. Or rather, Kurogane had not expected someone like Kanda to actually freak out.

"What are we going to do now?! WE"RE STUCK HERE!!!!" _Kanda_ shouted at the ninja, holding him by his collar and shaking him.

Kurogane said nothing. Instead, he grabbed hold of the panicking _Kanda_ and asked him, "You're not Kanda, right?"

_Kanda_ stopped struggling against Kurogane's grip and replied, "Eh? You're not Jasdero?"

"Who's Jasdero?"

"That's means you're an exorcist. Let me go, you exorcist!" _Kanda_ shouted.

Sighing, Kurogane released his grip on Devit, causing him to fall onto the floor.

"Ouch...could you be gentler?!" Devit groaned, rubbing the sore spot that connected with the floor.

"If you're not him, then who are you?" Kurogane asked, yet again ignoring the noah's question.

"That's it! No more Mr. Nice Guy! Take this!" Devit shouted, drawing out his pistol from his pocket.

"Wha-"

"BLUE BOMB!!" Devit fired at Kurogane.

Rather than dodging that attack, Kurogane stood at his ground, ready to defend. Once Devit's attack came too close, Kurogane raised his sword and slashed at it, causing it to disintegrate.

"_Shit, I forgot that my powers are not as effective if Jasdero is not around."_ Devit thought to himself.

Kurogane was about to comment on the noah's powers when he noticed a few curtains had come alive and were about to grab Devit.

"Look out!" he called to Devit.

That was only when Devit realised the potential danger that was behind him all along. As he turned, Devit tried to move his legs, but they wouldn't, leaving him like an easy prey to a hungry predator.

* * *

Jasdero shut the door as he entered the room.

"Hi! This room is pretty normal!" he commented, walking further into the room, into an unsuspecting trap.

At a dark corner of the room, a figure eyed the newcomer that had just entered the room. As the newcomer, walked further in, the figure readied his sword into an attacking position.

"First illusion, hellish insects!"

"AAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" Jasdero screamed as he noticed his attacker.

"Kurogane?" Kanda addressed, lowering his katana.

"...Devit?" _Kurogane_ asked tearfully, surprising Kanda.

"I'm not Devit..." Kanda replied shortly, placing mugen back into its sheath.

"Eh?! Then who are you?"

"Kanda"

"EH????!!!!!!!!!!!! An exorcist?!" Jasdero shouted in surprise.

Upon hearing Jasdero surprised shout, Kanda realised two things, one, that either Jasdero is an akuma or two, Jasdero is a noah. Either way, Kanda came to the conclusion that he'll have to kill Jasdero.

"Now, get ready to die." Kanda said emotionlessly, unsheathing mugen and pointing it in front of Jasdero.

Before either of them could react, a terrified shout followed by a series of crashes filled across the room.

"Devit!!!" Jasdero wailed, identifying that it was his twin who had shouted. Without bothering whether Kanda was about to kill him or not, he rushed out of the room. As for Kanda, he was taken by surprise when Jasdero sped out of the room at top speed. Quickly recovering from the minor shock, he chased after the noah.

"Wait! Don't you dare run away!" Kanda shouted as he chased after Jasdero who clearly didn't hear his threat.

* * *

Devit stood in frozen shock upon seeing the curtains moving swiftly towards him. More specifically, Devit was neither scared nor shocked of the curtains but rather he was surprised to see the moving curtains.

"Hey, kid! Watch out!" Kurogane shouted lunging at Devit.

The curtains too lunged at their target, Kurogane barely managed to grab Devit out of harms' way just as the curtains came crashing down at tremendous speed. Devit gave a shout of surprise when he saw the curtains struck where his head might have been if Kurogane had not pulled him out of the way.

"T-thanks..." Devit stammered.

"Let's get out the way." Kurogane instructed, as the curtain prepared to strike once again.

"Ahh!!!" Devit shouted as the curtain struck once again.

"Devit!!!!" Jasdero shouted, as he threw open the door and rushed into the room.

Seizing this chance, Kurogane rushed out of the room, closely followed by Devit who pulled Jasdero along. Just as the three of them exited the room, they collided into a charging Kanda, causing all four of them to fall into a tangled heap.

"Che, G-get off me!" Kurogane and Kanda shouted irritably, shoving Devit and Jasdero aside.

"Could you two be a little more polite?!" Devit and Jasdero shouted in unision, raising their fists in protest.

"Che..." the two exorcists muttered. This further angered the noah.

"So here's a thank-you present for the both of you. BLUE BOMB!" Jasdevi shouted, pointing both of their pistols at Kanda and Kurogane.

Both Kurogane and Kanda had barely managed to dodge the attack on time, causing part of the twins' attack to leave its mark on the two of them.

"Damn..." Kurogane muttered as he noticed ice forming on his right elbow, preventing any movement. Using his strength, Kurogane broke the ice from his elbow before it had the chance of growing any larger. Looking over at his shoulder, he noticed that Kanda was in the same predicament as him. Unfortunately, as Kanda and Kurogane prepared to counterattack Jasdevi, the pair raised their pistols once again.

"GREY BOMB!"

Smoke shrouded the entire corridor. As a reflex, Kanda and Kurogane both covered their faces with their arms to prevent themselves from inhaling the smoke. Coughing, Kurogane squinted his eyes only to see Jasdevi escaping beyond the thick cloud of smoke. Determined not to let them go, Kurogane raised his sword.

"Hama-ryuu-jin!" _(A/N: I'm not sure if I spelled this attack correctly...)_

Kurogane's attack managed to clear off the smoke and both him and Kanda gave chase. Only to find out that they were too late and the Jasdevi had successfully made their escape.

"Che, they got away." Kanda grumbled, placing mugen on his shoulder.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from downstairs causing Kurogane and Kanda to turn around in surprise.

Kurogane was the first to recover. "Let's go! It might be those two!" he shouted, running towards the stairs, closely followed by Kanda.

* * *

"Aah...so this is the house where Kuro-pipi and Yuu-chan are sent to investigate?" Fay asked in his usual carefree tone, folding his arms around the back of his head.

"According to Komui, this should be the place." Lavi replied.

"Looks scary...but it could be fun to see what expressions they had on their faces" Fay suggested.

"Hmm...sounds interesting! Let's go check it out!" Lavi said, liking the idea that Fay had mentioned. Lavi started over toward the house but Fay held up his hand to stop the bookman in his tracks.

"What's that greenish light over there?"

"That might be innocence and from the looks of it, it should be activated and causing some sort of trouble inside." Lavi answered, observing the greenish glow.

"Well, why don't we put an end to it first?" Fay asked, taking out his weapon, which happened to be a staff.

"So, I must say 'innocence activate' now right?" he continued, Lavi merely replied with a nod.

"Innocence activate."

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_**A/N: Hope all of you enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review ^-^**_

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	7. Chapter 7

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**_A/n: Sorry for not updating this story for so long!!! and sorry for the crappy previous chapter...hope this one would not disappoint you readers. Anyway, I've actually intended to update this together with chapter 8 but it occurred to me that will probably take too long... but I've already started on chapter 8 =)_**

**_Alright, enough of me talking (or typing in this case...) Enjoy the story! ;)_**

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_**Recap**_

"_What's that greenish light over there?"_

"_That might be innocence and from the looks of it, it should be activated and causing some sort of trouble inside." Lavi answered, observing the greenish glow._

"_Well, why don't we put an end to it first?" Fay asked, taking out his weapon, which happened to be a staff._

"_So, I must say 'innocence activate' now right?" he continued, Lavi merely replied with a nod._

"_Innocence activate."_

* * *

Fay calmly activated his innocence. Suddenly, chains shot out from either side of his staff twisting and coiling at a speed that would be considered unnatural. Furthermore, the chains seemed to have a mind of its own as it was reacting in such a way that it would be impossible for anyone who ever attempt to control them.

However, in Fay's case, he twisted his staff as if he knew what to do from the beginning. Directing the moving chains, Fay silently instructed his innocence, which obediently followed its host orders.

Lavi watched from a short yet safe distance away, slightly awed at how Fay managed to control his innocence so well on a first attempt for his anti-akuma weapon was not simple in terms of design to begin with. Although it wasn't difficult to control innocence if one is its host, Lavi noted that the magician was an experienced fighter, judging by the way the latter had perfectly manoeuvred a weapon so complicated.

Once the chains reached its target, it winded itself up around the innocence instead of destroying it. However, as a reflex, the other innocence started focusing its power at the Fay's innocence, causing him to wince slightly at the sudden strength pulling on the other end.

"Hey, is there anything wrong?" Lavi asked, coming forward to help the magician.

"No...Things just got a little more troublesome..." Fay grunted as he tugged harder, while Lavi helped out by tugging on the staff as well.

All of a sudden, the unknown strength that was at the other end gave a rather powerful tug, causing both Fay and Lavi to literally fly forward towards the house. Quite surprisingly, the pair collided in mid-way with another pair they did not expect to meet.

"Kuro-wanwan! Yuu-chan! You're all right!" Fay said happily, raising one of his hands to rub a sore spot on his head. Kurogane, Kanda and Lavi were still temporarily knocked out from the 'head-on collision' earlier. Only Fay was somehow unaffected by the whole thing.

"Umm...guys? Time to snap out of it..." Fay called to the trio, in his usual sing-song voice.

* * *

"Puu! Amazing! Switzerland is so beautiful!!!" Mokona exclaimed, looking all around.

"You're right, Moko-chan." Sakura agreed while Syaoran nodded, looking around the slightly bustling station they had just arrived. He noted that various people were moving in their intended directions, train conductors were at their respective posts doing their duty. Nobody paid any attention to the small group dressed mostly in black that had just arrived.

"It seems peaceful here." Syaoran noted.

"We'd better get moving. Our destination is at the Swiss alps." Link said in his usual serious tone.

"Link, try not to ruin the mood here." Allen sighed, walking toward the exit while Timcampy flew beside him.

"That right." Lenalee agreed, walking in Allen's direction, shortly followed by Syaoran, Sakura and Mokona who was sitting rather comfortably on Sakura's shoulder.

Link remained surprised that all of them supported Allen's short retort. It was only when Allen called out to him asking whether he's coming along that he broke out of his thoughts and briskly walked towards the waiting group.

"Tee hee, Link is getting mad." Mokona teased.

"S-S-Shut up." Link snapped, trying as hard as possible to keep his voice to his usual tone.

* * *

Everything was almost normal for Allen and the others as they walked towards their intended destination. Everyone in the town was busy with their own work or chores while children were happily running around and playing.

It all seemed peaceful around the area, where akumas never existed and people were not living in fear because of it. Well, that's what Allen and the others thought as they passed through the town. However, unknown to them, a rather rounded figure stood hiding in one the dark deserted alleyway, watching.

"This is a good place to start creating a few of my darling akumas...and with the exorcists and the newcomers, things will be interesting." the earl chuckled sinisterly, stepping back before disappearing in a thick cloud of smoke. Almost immediately, Allen's left eye began to react.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! Monsters!!!" someone screamed, pointing at the floating figures which somehow resembled balloons from far.

On reflex, Allen, Lenalee and Link turned towards the direction of the advancing akuma army that were heading towards them. Syaoran, Sakura and Mokona were surprised at the sudden change in Allen's left eye and wanted to know why it had reacted in such a way but given their current situation, they wisely decided that their questions could be asked later.

"Princess, stay behind me!" Syaoran instinctively came in front, shielding her body in order to protect her.

"But-"

"Innocence activate!" three voices shouted at the same time.

As the group of exorcists began attacking, two figures stood safely a little distance away, watching them.

"Tyki, the new exorcists don't seem to be as strong as Allen and Lenalee, but the new female exorcist looks cute." Road commented, licking her lollipop.

"You're right; do you think that boy knows how to play poker like cheater type A?" Tyki asked, taking out a deck of poker cards and began shuffling it.

"Tyki, concentrate on the mission the Earl gave us...wish Lero was here, he'll be more fun than you." Road sighed, looking at the scene where the battle had just begun.

"Speak for yourself." Tyki replied back, lazily placing his cigarette back to his mouth.

Both Allen and Lenalee attacked the level one akumas directly, slashing at the monsters with their anti-akuma weapons. However, Syaoran was fighting defensively, in order to protect Sakura.

As Sakura stood watching, she was extremely shocked that such monsters could even exist. However, when she looked directly at one of them, she widened her eyes in shock.

Instead of just seeing just the akuma like everyone else, Sakura could also see the soul of the akumas which were all chained by their necks and all of them had the same expression; Sadness.

The soul was crying, whether it is tears of anguish or grief, Sakura was unsure. What had really surprised her was that she heard the soul crying out to her.

"SAVE ME!"

"N-n-no..." fear had clearly taken over Sakura as she took a step backwards, uncertain of whether to believe the akuma that was currently advancing towards her.

"Sakura-san! Use your innocence to kill the akuma!" Allen shouted at her, fighting off about six level one akumas at the same time.

Allen's shout had brought Sakura out from her thoughts, it was only then that Sakura realised that one of the akumas had gotten quite close to her and Syaoran was some distance away, fighting off the akumas just like Allen and Lenalee.

"Sakura!" Syaoran immediately tried to rush over to protect her but a number of akumas blocked his path.

Determined not to let Syaoran worry over her, she took out her weapon, pointing straight at the akuma. However, once Sakura made eye contact with it, the fear that was momentarily blocked away by determination made its way back out again. As soon as fear took over Sakura, she had forgotten about the phrase that needs to be said before using the weapon at the akuma.

Sakura aimed her weapon with shaking arms right it and pulled the trigger. Upon pulling the trigger, she clamped her eyes shut, awaiting for the impact of the akuma being blown into bits but it never came.

"Thank you." A voice which Sakura did not recognize whispered.

Surprised, Sakura opened her eyes slowly, looking around for the akuma that had been a threat to her life just a minute ago. Instead, she noticed that there were sakura petals where the akuma stood before, dancing along wherever the wind blew.

"...What happened?" she asked both in surprise and shock, gradually sinking on the ground.

* * *

"Huh? This doesn't seem to work either." Fay whined, after trying yet another futile effort to wake both Kanda and Kurogane. Lavi, on the other hand managed to regain consciousness. Just then, the latter spotted two familiar faces that he knew all too well a little distance away.

"Umm...Fay-san, looks like we'll have to try and wake them a little later." Lavi muttered, pulling out his hammer, "Ōzuchi Kozuchi, grow, grow, grow!"

Fay gave him a questioning look before noticing the two newcomers that have came into view. His expression immediately turned serious. Standing up, Fay too readied his weapon in his hand.

"Oh? What have we here? Two more exorcists?" Devit questioned, moving closer towards the two, smirking.

"Hi! There's the boy with red hair just like Cross! Oooh...looking at his hair reminds me of the debts he left for us!" Jasdero said, waving his arms in frustration.

"Who's Cross?" Fay asked his voice full of curiosity.

Both Devit and Jasdero stood shocked since they had the idea that all exorcists should have at least an idea on their generals' character.

"Y-You...mean you don't know this guy?" Devit gaped, lowering his gun in surprise.

"No, not at all." Fay smiled.

"Hi! That's impossible, hey, you there, why didn't you let him know about Cross?" Jasdero demanded, pointing accusingly at Lavi who looked rather bewildered at the whole scene.

"Hey, hey," Lavi wasn't sure whether to continue their conversation or start fighting since Fay started the whole thing. Then, he looked at Fay who gave him a slight wink. Lavi was a little startled at first but he soon caught on to what the magician was planning.

"Heh, that's a pretty good plan." Lavi muttered to himself.

"Would you be so kind as to tell me who Mr Cross is?" Fay's smile got slightly wider.

"If you insist, well, it all start-" Devit sighed slightly before trying to begin explaining. However, Lavi immediately attacked him with his anti-akuma weapon.

"That's not fair!" Devit shouted, wiping the blood which had managed to escape from the corner of his mouth.

"Sorry, but looks like you have something we want." Lavi calmly pointed at the glowing innocence that was currently in Devit's hand.

Devit smirked as he noticed that Fay was just merely acting as a distraction while Lavi would attack when both he and Jasdero were off-guard. He silently admitted that the exorcists' plan was brilliant. It might have gotten them should they dodged a second later.

"That's a cunning way to get us...now it's our turn. Red Bomb!" both Devit and Jasdero aimed their guns right at the exorcists and fired.

A large fireball appeared from Jasdevi's pistols and went towards Fay and Lavi at top speed, a speed whereby it would be impossible for a normal human being to jump away quickly enough. However, Fay and Lavi, who were both rather experienced fighters, dodged with ease, although Lavi was just a mere centimetre away from being burned.

"Fire seal!" Lavi struck his hammer at the fire seal causing a dragon covered in flames to appear and immediately attacked Jasdevi who both dodged with practised ease, in synchro with each other.

"Ice chains."

Before either Devit or Jasdero could react, chains surrounded them, preventing their escape. Soon, they were trapped in a constantly revolving round ball of chains and the temperature got lower and lower.

"What? It getting colder in here." Devit snarled, rubbing his hands along his arms, clearly unhappy that they're being trapped. Jasdero, too, was doing the same action as his twin.

"Really? I thought it'll be cool to live in the cold." Fay joked while holding his staff in place.

"If you don't enjoy it, let's heat things up a little, fire seal!" Lavi replied, glancing at Fay, who immediately understood what the bookman was about to do.

The flaming dragon once again appeared and headed for the ball of chains. This time, it was too late for both Devit and Jasdero to react even if they had figured out a way to counter-attack. At the last moment, Fay gave his staff a slight tug causing the chains to retract back into the staff. That left Jasdevi vulnerable to the flames, which engulfed them almost immediately.

"Argh!!!!" their screams echoed as the flames burned them.

Fay went forward and picked up the innocence on the ground which had been forgotten since the start of the battle. After examining it, he gave it to Lavi, who pocketed it.

"Y-Y-You two made us really angry now...prepare to face our wrath!" Devit and Jasdero both growled at the same time, preparing to become one.

"Devit, Jasdero, please stop whatever you're doing and come back home now" a sinister voice said, causing the two noahs to look up in surprise.

"Looks like we'll have our revenge another time, Grey bomb!" a cloud of smoke covered the exorcists' vision, enabling Devit and Jasdero to make a quick getaway before either of them could catch up. By the time the smoke cleared, Devit and Jasdero were gone.

Coughing slightly due to the smoke, Fay managed to ask, "Who was that?"

"The Millennium Earl." Lavi replied in a serious tone, "somehow, I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen."

As Fay tried to reply him, two other exorcists at another corner stirred, causing both Fay and Lavi to turn.

"Ugh...what just happened?" Kurogane asked, looking rather dazed.

"Good morning, Kuro-pon." Fay smiled, patting the ninja's head.

"Answer my question, you idiot!" he snapped, swiping Fay's hand away from his head.

"Where are that two noahs?" Kanda asked Lavi.

"They got away."

"You let them escape?!"

"No...It's a long story." Lavi tried to inch away from mugen that was dangerously pointing extremely near to his face.

"You two are so grumpy when you woke up." Fay pretended to pout.

"I agree" Lavi nodded his head.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Kanda and Kurogane growled, both Fay and Lavi began to run away in mock fear, "COME BACK HERE!!" the two swordsmen raised their swords and chased after the other two, who were already some distance ahead of them.

* * *

**_A/N: I had to 'knock out' Kanda and Kurogane in this chapter in order for both Fay and Lavi to have a bit of the spotlight...yup, I kind of figured out that Fay and Lavi would not have much spotlight if Kanda and Kurogane were to fight all out with Jasdevi...(Hope you won't mind too much ^^;;). Another thing, about Fay's anti-akuma's weapon, I had imagined it to be just like the one he carried in the video "CLAMP in wonderland 2" (For those who haven't watch it, I recommend it...:))_**

**_NOTE: I'll be on a MINI hiatus for a while, due to school life and everyday life...but it won't be a COMPLETE HIATUS though...just that the next chapter might take a little longer to be up..._**

**_Please read and review! ^-^_**


	8. Chapter 8

**_A/n: Here's chapter 8 up and done...and I'm glad to announce that the mini hiatus is officially over =D Many thanks to those who had reviewed so far, you guys are wonderful...^^_**

**_and..._**

**_Enjoy the story!_**

**_

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_**

Recap

_"Sakura-san! Use your innocence to kill the akuma!" Allen shouted at her, fighting off about six level one akumas at the same time._

_Allen's shout had brought Sakura out from her thoughts, it was only then that Sakura realised that one of the akumas had gotten quite close to her and Syaoran was some distance away, fighting off the akumas just like Allen and Lenalee._

_"Sakura!" Syaoran immediately tried to rush over to protect her but a number of akumas blocked his path._

_Determined not to let Syaoran worry over her, she took out her weapon, pointing straight at the akuma. However, once Sakura made eye contact with it, the fear that was momentarily blocked away by determination made its way back out again. As soon as fear took over Sakura, she had forgotten about the phrase that needs to be said before using the weapon at the akuma._

_Sakura aimed her weapon with shaking arms right it and pulled the trigger. Upon pulling the trigger, she clamped her eyes shut, awaiting for the impact of the akuma being blown into bits but it never came._

_"Thank you." A voice which Sakura did not recognize whispered._

_Surprised, Sakura opened her eyes slowly, looking around for the akuma that had been a threat to her life just a minute ago. Instead, she noticed that there were sakura petals where the akuma stood before, dancing along wherever the wind blew._

_"...What happened?" she asked both in surprise and shock, gradually sinking on the ground._

* * *

Sakura still could not believe what had just happened. The akuma had simply became flower petals and danced away in the wind but that was the least of what mattered to Sakura. The soul in the akuma was nothing like Sakura had ever seen, let alone experience or encounter.

Even though she was aware of her ability to see dead souls, Sakura was not really bothered by it until now. However, the moment she had eye contact with the akuma, Sakura wished that she did not have that ability at all. It was the first time that she witnessed a soul in so much pain and sadness.

At first, Sakura wasn't sure whether Syaoran and the others could see the akuma's souls just like she did but she noticed that Syaoran and the others were fighting the akumas as if they were just 'monsters'. That made her came to a painful conclusion that she was the only one that was able to see akumas' souls or so she thought.

"Princess! Are you alright?" Syaoran asked worriedly as he rushed to her side.

"...I'm fine..." Sakura managed to choke out these words; however, she noticed that not only her voice was trembling, but her body as well.

Syaoran immediately took notice of this and his expression softened. He knew that Sakura had not experienced such a thing before and therefore it's not surprising that she would react in that way. Syaoran took Sakura in his arms, slightly surprising her.

"It's ok..." he whispered into her ear.

Sakura wanted to reply him but no words would come out. Instead, tears ran down freely on her cheeks. Unsure of what to do next, Sakura buried her face into Syaoran's shoulder and wept while Syaoran patted her lightly on the back.

* * *

Standing a little distance away from the pair, Allen watched. He couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic just by watching Syaoran and Sakura. It had reminded him a little of his first mission where Cross had asked him to fight an akuma face-to-face for the first time. Although what he reminisced was a painful memory, Allen couldn't help but give a small pained smile and fully understood what Sakura was going through at the moment. Killing the akuma was a tough job and not everybody would be able to bring themselves to kill the akumas, with or without innocence.

"What are you thinking about?" Lenalee asked as she stood beside Allen.

"Just seeing Sakura-san makes me feel a little nostalgic...it reminds me of the first time I killed the akuma."

"I see...at least she had someone to comfort her right after this experience." Lenalee replied.

"Yeah..." Allen agreed.

"If you two are quite done there, we could carry on before it gets dark." Link commented, earning glares from both Allen and Lenalee.

"Link, can't you give them a little more time?" Allen growled.

"No, I can't. We have a mission to complete and we have to return to the black order as soon as possible." Link replied in a rather monotonous fashion.

Allen sighed in defeat. It was nearly impossible to convince Link that something else was more important than his duties. Although there might be exceptions, the chances of it happening were rare unless it was a matter of life and death. Allen had given up trying to convince the latter a long time ago, ever since Link was ordered by Rouvelier to keep a 24/7 watch on him. Initially, Allen had tried all sorts of ways to get Link to be more lenient on the 24/7 supervision but the inspector firmly refused, re-emphasising that it was his duty to watch over Allen. From that time on, Allen simply resigned to the fact, although he would get slightly irritated that he does not have time to spend alone.

"A-Ah, I'm so sorry, Link-san, we could continue on our journey." Sakura said apologetically, standing up and wiping her eyes.

"Are you sure you're ok, Sakura?" Syaoran asked his voice filled with worry and concern.

"Sakura, it's ok if you want to sit down a little while longer. Allen and the others can go ahead first; we can catch to them anytime." Mokona added, lightly jumping onto Sakura's shoulder

"I'm fine. Thank you." Sakura smiled reassuringly, touching Mokona's ears gently and looking at Syaoran.

"All right, let's hurry before it gets dark." Lenalee said to them.

* * *

The warm glow of the fire was welcoming against the cold air of the night. It cackled as if full of energy and undaunted by the constant cold wind that was blowing across the clearing. A pot of stew was placed just above the fire, boiling steadily as the flames danced along the bottom of the pot while the aroma rose from the pot and wafted gracefully through their noses, which was tempting enough for Allen and the others, especially Allen.

"Is it ready yet?" Allen asked expectantly, leaning forward.

"Walker, there's still another few minutes for the stew to be completely cooked...now stop asking me the same question every few minutes!" Link snapped.

"Looks delicious! Mokona can't wait to try some!" Mokona commented, jumping up and down in excitement.

Soon the stew was ready and Link poured equal amounts of it into each of the bowls, with the exception of Allen's of course. Knowing that the exorcist have a certain fondness of food and a parasitic anti-akuma weapon, Link had given him a larger portion compared to the others, which Allen gratefully accepted.

"Thanks for the food!" Allen happily called, before eating his meal, more enthusiastically than everyone else.

"Sakura, aren't you eating?" Mokona asked worriedly, noticing that the girl had not touched her food since it had been served to her.

"Sakura-san, if it's about Link-san, don't bother about him...he's always like that." Allen piped up, managing to swallow before answering. Link shot him a glare before returning to his meal.

"I-I-It's not that, Allen-san...it's-...nothing." Sakura finished hurriedly, deciding that it was a wise decision in not telling Allen and the others about her encounter with the akuma.

Syaoran felt that there was something not right in Sakura's voice; it still contained the fear which he sensed when he comforted her earlier in the afternoon. He decided to ask her later, respecting the decision Sakura made in not telling the others about it.

"Ah-h, ok..." Allen replied, returning to his meal. To a person who didn't know Allen well, it might have seemed that Allen wasn't bothered at all by Sakura's reply. Instead, he was a little worried about the comment she gave.

* * *

Later that night, Sakura could not get to sleep at all. She was still preoccupied about what happened earlier in the afternoon. Initially, Sakura thought that destroying the akuma was just killing emotionless monsters that had brought nothing but misery into innocent people's lives. That encounter with the akuma had proved her wrong.

"Sakura, can't sleep?" Syaoran asked, turning over to face her.

"No..." Sakura replied.

"What's on your mind?"

"...do you still remember what happened in the afternoon?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran nodded in reply.

"Do you see what was within the akuma?" she continued, avoiding eye contact with Syaoran.

* * *

A short distance away, both Allen and Lenalee were listening in on the conversation. They were shocked with the fact that Sakura had indirectly revealed that she could also see the akuma's soul, just like Allen. Lenalee forced herself to remain calm at the shocking revelation and placed her hand over her mouth, trying to force back a gasp.

Allen was pretty much as shocked as Lenalee was. Sakura did not look like the type of person who would make the same mistake he did so many years back. However, the logical part of him argued that it was the first time that Sakura had come face to face with an akuma and she wasn't cursed like he was. Truthfully, Allen didn't know how to react to this, a part of him wanted to be angry that she might have made the same mistake he did. Another part of him felt sorry for her that she could also see the akuma's soul just like he did. However, he decided for the time being he would try not to jump to any conclusions until he hears what she had to say.

* * *

Syaoran was rather taken aback by the question that Sakura had just asked him. As much he wanted to lie about how he could see akumas too in order to comfort Sakura, Syaoran felt that it was the best to give a truthful answer rather than a made-up one.

"...Sorry, Sakura, I could only the akuma as it is...but...could it be due to your ability to see dead souls since you're young?" Syaoran asked, in reply Sakura gave him a questioning look, wondering how he knew that she was able to see souls of the dead person since she was young?

Realizing at what he had just mentioned, Syaoran hurriedly replied, "U-u-uhh...I had mentioned that because...ah, do you remember back then in Jade country you mentioned that you saw the golden-haired princess?"

Sakura nodded her head in reply, pondering over what Syaoran had mentioned.

"But...the dead souls I could see was nothing like the akuma...it looks like a human skeleton...chained to the body of the akuma...the soul wasn't happy at all...it was crying..." Sakura explained, trying really hard to stop her voice from shaking.

"It's okay...Sakura, you remember what Allen-san had mentioned about the akuma soul would be freed if the akuma is destroyed by the innocence." Syaoran comforted Sakura, hugging her close to him.

"But..."

"Trust me, it'll be okay..." Syaoran assured her.

"Thank you...Syaoran-kun."

* * *

"Allen-kun, are you okay?" Lenalee asked worriedly, noticing that her friend was awfully quiet since they overheard the conversation between Syaoran and Sakura.

"It's just that...all this time, I thought I was the only one who could see the akuma souls...and now Sakura can too. Do you think...?" Allen didn't continue any further but Lenalee knew what he wanted to ask.

"I don't think Sakura would have done that," She replied, choosing her words carefully.

"We should talk to her about this before jumping into conclusions." She continued.

"You're right. Thank you, Lenalee." Allen smiled gratefully.

* * *

The next morning, Link was the first to awake, since he was undisturbed during his sleep the last night. Stretching himself, Link got up and poured the water over the dying embers of the fire, which sizzled feebly before completely dying out. Looking around, he noticed that the weather today was extremely good for travelling and in order to get to the much needed destination, the others must get up early and leave.

As if on cue, Mokona jumped onto Link's shoulder causing him to jump slightly.

"Good morning, Link! Puu!"

"Morning, Mokona, are you always this hyper every morning?" Link asked.

"Yes! That's because Mokona is Mokona!" Mokona giggled.

"Whatever..."

"Puu! Is it time to wake the others up?"

"Yes..."

"EVERYBODY!!! RISE AND SHINE!" Mokona shouted rather excitedly, arousing the others from their sleep.

"Mokona, next time try to use a quieter wake-up call....ugh, now my ears are hurting." Allen said, stifling a yawn.

"YAY!!! Now everybody's awake, we can leave!!" Mokona exclaimed, apparently she did not hear what Allen had just said.

"We haven't had breakfast yet...and I'm hungry" Allen whined, still feeling rather sleepy.

"I've already prepared breakfast." Link stated, throughout the whole time that Mokona was trying to get Allen and the others to awake, he had prepared breakfast, Knowing very well that a certain white-haired boy would much prefer to take his meals before setting off to anywhere.

"Thank you, Link" Allen replied gratefully, almost snatching the bowl from Link's hands.

As Allen finished the last of his breakfast, he carefully thought over what had happened the night before. Allen had felt that Lenalee was right about the point on asking Sakura before jumping to any conclusions that they could think of. Deciding to listen to Lenalee's advice, Allen determined to ask Sakura about it when he got the opportunity. Immersed in his thoughts, Allen stared off into the distance where the sun was already steadily rising in the horizon.

"Allen, if you wouldn't set off now, we're leaving you behind." Link called to him.

"I'm coming," Allen called back, rushing to catch up with them.

* * *

A little distance away, Road and Tyki watched the group as they set off. Road was swinging Lero, just like a child would with his toys at a certain point of time. Unlike their previous mission, the noah had finally managed to persuade the Earl to allow her to borrow Lero on this mission. Lero was reluctant to go with her, knowing full well what would Road do to him. However, he had no choice. Standing a little distance away, Tyki was smoking on another stick of cigarette, bored with the entire waiting game. The both of them waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Tyki, don't you think they're moving a bit too slowly?" Road whined, lightly hitting Lero onto a rock, the umbrella was repeatedly wincing at each impact, though it never did much damage to the latter.

"They're moving way too slowly now...say, Road, should we get a few akumas to get them to warm up?" Tyki looked up, smiling rather sinisterly.

"Oh? I'm way ahead of you at this." Road replied snapping her fingers, immediately a level two akuma appeared, along with a couple of level three.

"Time to let the fun and games begin." Road said, using Lero like a pointer, she silently ordered the akumas to head towards Allen and the others.

* * *

**_A/N: So...chapter 8 is finally done...and it's a cliffhanger at the end...Sorry this had to be a filler chapter though...for next chapter, it's back to the action ^^_**

**_Please read and review! =)_**

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Here chapter 9...reuploaded...the previous draft had been taken down for major editing...and while I was editing chapter 9, it had became extremely long that I had to separate it into chapter 10 and 11. Yup, so chapter 10 and 11 are also done...and edited...I'll post them on another day =)_

_Enjoy the chapter!_**_

* * *

_**

_Recap_

_"Tyki, don't you think they're moving a bit too slowly?" Road whined, lightly hitting Lero onto a rock, the umbrella was repeatedly wincing at each impact, though it never did much damage to the latter._

_"They're moving way too slowly now...say, Road, should we get a few akumas to get them to warm up?" Tyki looked up, smiling rather sinisterly._

_"Oh? I'm way ahead of you at this." Road replied snapping her fingers, immediately a level two akuma appeared, along with two level three akumas._

_"Time to let the fun and games begin." Road said, using Lero like a pointer, she silently ordered the akumas to head towards Allen and the others._

_

* * *

_

Allen's left eye reacted as soon as the akumas were a few hundred metres away from their target, which happened to be them. The familiar winding sound and the formation of a monocle over the boy's eye had alerted him as well as the others.

"Akumas!" Syaoran exclaimed. The others nodded in reply, activating their anti-akuma weapons.

"Die! Exorcists!" a level two akuma yelled, throwing a pair of blades at both Allen and Syaoran with deadly accuracy. As always, the boys were able to dodge the blades. Immediately after they had dodged the initial attack, Vines, a level three akuma, shot out a series of what it seemed to be like bullets. Allen and the others prepared to avoid the oncoming attack, half-expecting that it'll hit them. Instead, it had missed by a landslide, hitting the ground.

"What?!" Allen gasped, shocked that the level three had missed; usually the akumas they faced would have tried to hurt them in any way possible. Other than the two akumas, the remaining level three akuma have not revealed what his abilities were and in order to succeed in defeating the akumas, the exorcists had to plan everything with great caution.

Unfortunately, it was only at the last moment before either Syaoran or Allen noticed the akuma's intention.

"Allen-san, they're separating us!" Syaoran cried, once he had figured out why the akuma had intentionally missed in the first place.

As the two tried to rush over, the ground suddenly shook, causing everyone apart from the akumas to lose their balance. Then, huge vines shot from the ground, surrounding the two boys and enclosing them, forming something which closely resembled a fortress. Lenalee, Sakura and Mokona tried to rush to their aid but were blocked by the akumas.

"Now, where do you think you're going?" the level two akuma asked sinisterly before starting his attack.

* * *

"Damn, we fell for their trap!" Allen muttered, as he activated crown clown, trying to make an opening from within the fortress.

"That won't work...the akuma had made it really thick" a voice said, "you can only escape from here if you defeat that akuma, unfortunately, he's outside taking care of the others."

"Tyki Mikk," Allen immediately recognized the voice and his eyes widened in shock.

The last time when the two had fought against each other, Allen's innocence had caused Tyki to lose control of his noah powers and was practically invincible until General Cross appeared. He had never expected that Tyki would still be fine after the attack. Moving cautiously, Allen reached for his left hand and gently pulled. Gradually, the arm became the handle of a broad sword with black linings on the sides and a cross in the middle.

"Amazing..."Syaoran thought, slightly amazed at what the innocence could do.

Gradually, sounds of gentle footsteps could be heard, each one getting louder that the other. Both Allen and Syaoran turned around, their weapons ready in their hands. Then, out of the darkness of the shadows, Tyki strolled out, casually smoothing his hair back before wearing his top hat.

"Long time no see, boy. The last battle we had was most entertaining and I'm here to give something in return, you experiencing what I had been through. It's not exactly a nice feeling to experience." Tyki smirked, before letting his gaze linger over Syaoran.

"Oh? Who is this?" Tyki continued while lighting a cigarette, "that's fine if you don't want to answer, I'll be getting rid of you two."

Before Tyki could continue any further, Allen dashed towards him, with Crown Clown raised slightly at an angle. As the boy neared his target, he slashed towards the noah who avoided the attack rather smoothly. However, Tyki failed to notice Syaoran's oncoming attack until the last moment and had just barely managed to avoid the attack on time.

"Two against one, that's hardly fair, don't you think? Why don't we even out the odds?" the noah commented, opening both of his palms where black butterflies seemed to fly out endlessly. "Tease." he continued, attacking the two exorcists with much more force than before, using Tease to form a shield to block their oncoming attacks.

Both Allen and Syaoran fought evenly with Tyki although he was using Tease. The battle went on for several minutes with no sign of either side being tired out. However, as the minutes went by, both Allen and Syaoran began to feel worn out. Unfortunately, Tyki had shown no signs of feeling tired.

"Oh? Feeling tired already?"

Neither Allen nor Syaoran had the strength to reply the noah. Gritting his teeth, Allen rushed forward towards Tyki while Syaoran had decided to attack from the right. Sighing, Tyki deflected both of their attacks with little difficultly, causing Allen and Syaoran to be knocked back. Syaoran struggled to stand as the noah approached him while Allen had been knocked unconscious from the previous blow.

In his opinion, of all the opponents that he faced so far, Tyki was one of the toughest he had ever encountered yet. From what Syaoran had observed so far, he had realized that Tyki seemed to have no weak points at all and that he could pass through any material.

"What's the matter, boy?" Tyki asked, suddenly appearing in front of Syaoran. Before Syaoran could react, Tyki shot his hand directly into Syaoran's chest.

Syaoran gasped in shock, he had expected to feel an immense pain; however, he felt nothing though he was fully aware that Tyki hand went straight through his body.

"I've already killed a few exorcists using this method," Tyki said, as he moved his hand towards Syaoran's heart "using my power, I can take out your heart while you're still alive."

Tyki watched Syaoran's expression as he finished his sentence. Horror and shock was initially evident on the boy's face but it was replaced into a calm but determined look.

"You're similar to cheater type A in terms of behaviour but it's been nice knowing you" Tyki said darkly, preparing to deliver the final blow.

* * *

As Tyki was about to remove his hand, Syaoran could only watch. He tried to move away but neither his legs nor hands could move.

"Good night, boy." Tyki finished darkly. Before he could complete his task, white strips of cloth shot out and wrapped around the hand.

"Still alive, I suppose?" Tyki asked as he turned to face Allen.

Allen didn't reply. Instead, he attacked immediately as though he had no injuries at all. That caught Tyki by surprise as he blocked every attack that Allen made.

"I don't believe it, he's still unconscious yet he's fighting back."Tyki thought.

Syaoran meanwhile quickly recovered from the close death encounter and took this opportunity to directly injure the noah. As he raised his sword, flames shot out from the base of the blade, engulfing it entirely in flames. Syaoran looked up directly at Tyki, who was momentarily shocked to see the expression on Syaoran's expression but quickly changed into maniacal expression.

"This is going to be interesting."

* * *

Both Allen and Syaoran attacked the noah at the same time, each having a newfound strength through determination. In the midst of the fight, Allen regained consciousness, and he had just managed to block an attack from Tyki.

"Allen-san, are you alright?" Syaoran asked while deflecting a blow from Tyki.

"Yeah...don't worry about me...this happens sometimes" Allen smiled before turning his attention back to the battle. As Tyki was about to deliver another fatal blow to the exorcists, black bonds suddenly appeared and separated both exorcists and noah from one another, catching both sides by surprise.

"Tyki-pon, don't waste your energy here, save it for the real fight that will happen soon." The earl appeared, walking rather casually between the exorcists and noah.

"Earl, please stop using that nickname on me," Tyki grumbled, "don't stop the fight here, I was just getting excited."

Ignoring the noah's comment, the earl turned to Allen and Syaoran, who scowled.

"Good evening to you both please don't use that expression now." The Earl said, as though talking as if the fight had not taken place.

"Earl...what do you want?" Allen growled as he tried to fight the bonds.

"It's simple, you'll find out in the near future and you exorcists will be the main players, especially your new friend outside."

Syaoran's eyes widened as he realized who the Earl was referring to. It was their intention to separate the boys from the others before the fight had even started.

"You're not going anywhere near her." Syaoran glared at the earl. Both Allen and Tyki were surprised as they noticed the sudden change in the tone of Syaoran's voice. Syaoran was usually the type of person who rarely gets angry when threatened or provoked in any way. The sudden change in his tone was almost scary, somehow indirectly carrying a silent warning to the Earl.

However, whether the Earl had noticed the underlying hint in Syaoran's tone of voice, neither Tyki nor Allen could see. For one thing, the Earl was never the type to reveal his true emotions that easily and he had seemed unaffected by the change in Syaoran's voice.

"Such an interesting boy, well, we'll be meeting again in the near future, if you survive my darling akumas attacks. Good day to you." The Earl continued rather gentlemanly, ignoring what Syaoran had said earlier. "Tyki, let's make a move now, I've got another task for you." releasing the bonds restraining the noah.

The Earl evil laughter rang through the dark arena as he and Tyki disappeared into the darkness. As they disappeared, the bonds holding Allen and Syaoran seemingly dissolved, releasing them.

"Time to meet you end! exorcists!" cried a voice.

* * *

Vines shot out from the plant-like fortress and went for the two exorcists, catching them by surprise, the vines instantly coiled around them like a snake would to its prey. As the coils tightened, Allen and Syaoran were beginning to feel the effects of reduced oxygen supply.

"Two exorcists in one day, that's a record." The akuma laughed, having the thought that he already won.

"Think again" Allen replied, smirking.

The akuma was about to reply when suddenly a bright burst of flames brought his attention to Syaoran, who managed to free himself from the vines using Hien.

"Y-You-" the akuma tried to finish his sentence, unfortunately, Syaoran raised Hien and swung it down, bringing forth something that closely resembled a dog covered in flames. The dog charged towards the akuma, engulfing it in flames.

Cries of agony could be heard as Allen and Syaoran escaped from the fortress. Coughing slightly, Allen squinted, trying to find Lenalee and the others, anxiously hoping that they would be all right.

_

* * *

_

_A/N: okay...chapter 9 is done...and so is Allen and Syaoran's fight...the next chapter will about what happens to Lenalee, Sakura, Mokona and Link while Allen and Syaoran are fighting with Tyki...Hope you've enjoyed this chapter!=)_

_Please read & review. =)_


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: okay...here's chapter 10. The recap for this chapter would be slightly different from all my other chapters so far...because this chapter still takes place at the same time as the previous chapter...(In case anyone is wondering...I didn't forget about Lenalee and the others in the previous chapter...)_

_Enjoy the chapter! =)_

**

* * *

**

**_Recap_**

"_Die! Exorcists!" a level two akuma yelled, throwing a pair of blades at both Allen and Syaoran with deadly accuracy. As always, the boys were able to dodge the blades. Immediately after they had dodged the initial attack, Vines, a level three akuma, shot out a series of what it seemed to be like bullets. Allen and the others prepared to avoid the oncoming attack, half-expecting that it'll hit them. Instead, it had missed by a landslide, hitting the ground._

"_What?!" Allen gasped, shocked that the level three had missed; usually the akumas they faced would have tried to hurt them in any way possible. Other than the two akumas, the remaining level three akuma have not revealed what his abilities were and in order to succeed in defeating the akumas, the exorcists had to plan everything with great caution._

_Unfortunately, it was only at the last moment before either Syaoran or Allen noticed the akuma's intention._

"_Allen-san, they're separating us!" Syaoran cried, once he had figured out why the akuma had intentionally missed in the first place._

_As the two tried to rush over, the ground suddenly shook, causing everyone apart from the akumas to lose their balance. Then, huge vines shot from the ground, surrounding the two boys and enclosing them, forming something which closely resembled a fortress. Lenalee, Sakura and Mokona tried to rush to their aid but were blocked by the akumas._

"_Now, where do you think you're going?" the level two akuma asked sinisterly before starting his attack._

* * *

"Don't worry, Tyki-sama will take good care of them" Vines continued, enjoying the expressions on Lenalee, Sakura and Mokona.

Lenalee didn't want to believe what the akuma had just said; remembering the time where she had found out that Allen could not return as an exorcist shortly before leaving to Japan. The grief and guilt were the main things that she had felt back then and she did not want to experience it again, neither did she want Sakura or Mokona to experience it.

Determined to stop the level three akuma from taunting them any further, Lenalee used her boots and kicked off from the ground at a speed that was impossible for anyone to see where she was headed. Before Vines could react, Lenalee appeared right before it and delivered a hard kick that brought the akuma crashing to the ground. However, before Lenalee could attack him a second time, the other level three akuma, stopped her, with a speed that matched her own.

"Noah-sama had warned me of your abilities, luckily, I'm well-prepared!" the level three cried confidently, before taking off to the skies

"Amazing, she's fast." Mokona breathed while Sakura could only nod her head in reply as Lenalee chased after the level three akuma.

Unexpectedly, the level two shot up out of from the ground and appeared in front of Link, Sakura and Mokona. When she caught sight of the chained soul which resided within the akuma, Sakura flinched slightly.

"What's the matter, exorcist?" Vines asked as he joined in, standing alongside the level two.

"Mokona, please stay near Link-san," Sakura said quietly, not taking her eyes off the akumas.

"But-"

"Mokona, please...you might get hurt."

Sensing determination within her, Mokona quickly hopped onto Link's shoulder while Sakura prepared to attack.

"Take that!" the level two shouted, as it once again threw the blades. Instead of dodging it, Sakura aimed her anti-akuma weapon and shot right at the oncoming blades, deflecting them.

"Heh...not bad, I thought you were too scared to move but at least it would be more interesting to fight you." Vines taunted, "But it's time for you to die!" launching his attack.

* * *

From the ground, many vines shot out, entwining around Sakura. Sakura tried to fight with the bonds which, unfortunately tightened each time she tried to move.

"It's no use, I'm able to control the plants as I want to" the level three gloated, as the level two prepared to attack.

Sakura gasped as she realized that if she did not get out of her bonds right now, she would most likely be killed by both the level three and level two. _"No...no...I won't die here!"_ she thought, while she reached for her anti-akuma weapon.

Just as the level two threw the blades, Sakura had managed to get Hope free from the bonds. Almost giddy with relief, Sakura fired two shots which had hit both the level two akuma and the blades with extreme accuracy.

"T-T-This isn't the end yet, e-e-e-exorcist..." the level two barely managed to choke out as it dissolved away into Sakura petals.

"If he can't finish you off, then I will," Vines cried, while placing his hands to the ground, causing the ground to tremble once again. Then, unexpectedly, a rather gigantic plant to emerge from the ground.

However, before the akuma could continue further, an evil and sinister voice said, "Ah...my darling akuma, would you please finish off the two exorcists in that lovely fortress you've made?"

"With pleasure, Earl-sama," the akuma replied, before turning to Sakura, "I'll be back to finish you off once I'm done...that is, if you can survive my ultimate creation!"

"_Oh no....he's after Syaoran-kun and Allen-san!"_ Sakura thought as she tried to rush forward to stop the akuma. Unfortunately, the gigantic plant prevented her from going any further. Each time she took a step, the plant had attacked.

A little distance away from the fights and unknown to the exorcists, Road watched. Earlier on, she had felt that Sakura was merely not suited to be an exorcist, judging from the way she had reacted to the akuma in her first encounter. Since Sakura had proven that first impressions might not always be right, the latter had decided to watch the fight from a distance rather than joining the action.

"Road-tama, why didn't you join in the fight? I thought you were really enthusiastic about it earlier." Lero asked.

"I have not decided who I should play with first...Hey, look! That rabbit on that human's shoulder looks really adorable!" Road exclaimed in a child-like manner.

"Road-tama, that's not right! You shouldn't-" Lero tried to reason with her but was promptly ignored.

"Shut-up, Lero, besides, I sense that the innocence is nearby." Road interrupted, becoming instantly serious. Stepping away from her initial position, Road created a door using her powers.

"I'll return to join in the fun later, don't eliminate the exorcists just yet, as for the human, you can eliminate him if you like." She silently ordered the akuma.

* * *

"_The plant moves really fast...how am I going to attack it if this continues?"_ Sakura thought as she barely dodged yet another attack from the plant. Because of its speed, Sakura did not have enough time to properly attack it.

"Sakura!" Mokona cried out worriedly, "Link, are you able to help her with this?"

"I'll try my best," Link replied, taking out his pair of switchblades. With an expert aim, he threw it straight at the plant, successfully catching its attention.

"Destroy the plant now!" Link yelled as he dodged the plant.

Sakura immediately understood, aiming her anti-akuma weapon, she fired a few shots. Luckily, all the shots had hit their target, causing it to literally freeze in action before dissolving away.

"Sakura, you're great! Wait till Syaoran-kun and the others hear about this." Mokona said brightly, hopping lightly off Link's shoulder and onto the ground.

"Thank you, Mokona, Link-san" Sakura smiled, looking at them respectively as she mentioned their names.

"But...Lenalee is still fighting with that level three up there," Mokona pointed out, "is there anything we could do to help her?"

"No...we can't help her much from here. She's too far away." Link replied.

* * *

A few miles away from the battle, Road's door magically appeared from the ground. Pushing both doors open, Road strolled out into the open surrounding where the snow was so deep that it seemed that it had been snowing heavily for the past few days.

"Brr...It's cold here" Lero shivered. Road, however, did not seem affected by the cold.

"If I were innocence where would I be?" Road sang, as she made her way through the snow without much difficulty.

"Road-tama, there's a grass patch over there that doesn't seem affected by the snow. It's still green." Lero pointed out.

Road scanned the area and true enough, a tiny grass patch was seen from a short distance away and right in the middle of the grass patch, a sakura flower laid there, unaffected by the freezing weather and the cold draft of air.

"Found you, innocence!" Road cried excitedly as she rushed towards the innocence. However, the moment she got within a hundred meters from the innocence, a bright light appeared, momentarily blinding the noah.

"The light is too bright!" Lero commented, facing the opposite direction away from the blinding light as he was unable to shield his eyes from it.

Soon, the light faded. Road gently opened her eyes, however, the innocence was already gone. In addition, the snowy weather had been replaced by a sunny weather.

"_That innocence has an interesting power, not only is it able to cause a weather phenomenon, but it teleports as well."_ Road thought as she turned back to the door which she came through.

"Road-tama, where are we heading?" Lero asked.

"You'll see..." Road replied, not bothering to elaborate.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lenalee was fighting on par with the level three and the fight was really fast-paced and it was impossible for anyone to help either of them unless they could move at the same speed. Sakura, Mokona and Link had no choice but to helplessly watch as the battle.

"Sakura, I had just felt a strong presence like your feather but it just suddenly vanished." Mokona said.

"Eh? How's that possible?" Sakura replied, turning her attention to Mokona.

"Sakura, could you use your innocence and shoot the level three?" Link asked, as his eyes were transfixed on the battle, as if estimating the distance between them and Lenalee.

"But...I may hit Lenalee-san by accident!" Sakura replied, panicking slightly.

"Just do it! They are fighting at a lower altitude now. Your weapon would be able to distinguish the akuma from Lenalee." Link cried.

Sakura aimed her weapon cautiously and she fired. As Link had said, the bullets had hit the level three directly bringing its attention to Sakura instead.

"Why you-" the level three cried, clutching his left arm, obviously distracted from the fight and that gave Lenalee the advantage to give the finishing move.

"Pay attention to your opponent."

The level three could only gasp in shock as Lenalee delivered a direct kick into its body; no words could come out from his mouth as his body slowly dissolved into some-sort of flake-like substance.

"Thank you, Sakura, without your help; I would be probably still trying to defeat that akuma."

"Sakura's so cool!" Mokona cheered.

"Don't be too happy yet, now it's my turn to play with you, exorcists!" Road voice said rather playfully.

"Road..." Lenalee muttered as she recognized her voice.

"Bingo."

A red and black checkered door suddenly materialized out of nowhere, causing the group to be even more tense than before.

"Time for me to play with you, and I don't take no as an answer," Road smiled as she strolled through the open door that she had just created. "but...I only want to play with the exorcists...so..."

"Link! Mokona!" both girls cried as they saw the two of them being encased within a large semi-transparent dice.

"This is going to be so much fun." Road giggled, as the two exorcists turned and faced her.

"Let the fun and games begin." Road continued before slowly fading away with the surroundings, leaving Lenalee and Sakura trapped within the dimension that she had just created.

"Where are we?" Sakura asked, as she looked around nervously.

"This is one of Road's dimensions." Lenalee answered.

"That's right, now, my game is rather simple. If you manage to win, I'll let you and your friends go." Road explained, fingering the sharp tip of a candlestick, "but for every wrong move that you make, that human and the cute bunny outside will get hurt, like this." Road demonstrated by stabbing a dummy she had created with the candlestick, enjoying the shocked expressions on both Lenalee and Sakura.

* * *

_A/N: hehe...I have to end the chapter here for now, the rest of Road's battle with Lenalee and Sakura will continue in the next chapter...and Lavi, Fay, Yuu-chan and Kuro-rin will also be appearing in the next chapter^^ Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!_

_Re-edit: The next chapter might take a little while longer to be uploaded...I'm kinda doing really major changes to the initial draft..._

_Please read & review ^^_


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: Here's chapter 11-re-edited, enjoy the chapter! =)_

_**

* * *

**_

Recap

"_Let the fun and games begin." Road continued before slowly fading away with the surroundings, leaving Lenalee and Sakura trapped within the dimension that she had just created._

"_Where are we?" Sakura asked, as she looked around nervously._

"_This is one of Road's dimensions." Lenalee answered._

"_That's right, now, my game is rather simple. If you manage to win, I'll let you and your friends go." Road explained, fingering the sharp tip of a candlestick, "but for every wrong move that you make, that human and the cute bunny outside will get hurt, like this." Road demonstrated by stabbing a dummy she had created with the candlestick, enjoying the shocked expressions on both Lenalee and Sakura._

* * *

"The game that we'll be playing will be chess." Road revealed as a life-sized chessboard appeared.

Lenalee was slightly surprised that Road had an interest in playing chess. She had thought that Road was just a child who, like any normal kids, prefer playing games such as tag to intellectual games. Then again, unlike normal children, Road's definition of fun was much closer related to sadistic; Lenalee's previous two encounters with the noah had set this impression.

"_Chess?"_ Lenalee wondered, knowing that the game would not be as simple as it seemed.

"This isn't ordinary chess," Road replied, reading Lenalee's mind, "it's my version of chess: human chess" she continued, smiling sinisterly.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"It's simple, you play it like regular chess, however, the chess pieces would be..." Road waved her hand slightly, causing various familiar figures to appear.

Both Lenalee and Sakura widened their eyes in shock. Lenalee's hand immediately flew to her mouth while Sakura stared at the chess pieces, stunned. There, on the chessboard, stood the exorcists, including Syaoran, Fay and Kurogane.

"I'll play fair too, my chess pieces would be that of my family and the pawns would be the akumas." Road continued, "Then yours would be those whom you call comrades." pointing to the chess pieces.

"N-N-No" Lenalee whispered placing her hands on either side of her head. She had realized that if they were to play the game, both she and Sakura would be forced to sacrifice their friends in the game, although she knew full well that this was all an illusion.

Sensing both girls' reluctance, Road warned, "Lenalee, if you refuse to play this chess game, your friend and that cute rabbit out there would be stabbed by my candles." Showing the image where Link was trying to use his knife to break the wall, without any success at all. Surrounding the semi-transparent dice were numerous candlesticks with their sharp ends pointing directly at the captives.

"So, are you ready to play?" Road asked.

"Road, we'll play and we'll make sure you'll lose." Lenalee said firmly, after a moment of thought. She stepped onto the board as the queen chess piece while an equally determined Sakura took the only other empty spot which happened to be the bishop chess piece next to Lenalee.

"Let's begin," Road said, unable stop herself from smiling, taking her place.

* * *

The train whistled loudly, warning passengers that it's going to leave the station soon. Fay, Lavi, Kanda and Kurogane hurriedly rushed to get onto the train. Once on board, Lavi engaged in a light conversation with one of the train conductors who guided them to an empty first class cabin.

"WOW! I like the design of this cabin," Fay commented as he entered and casually sat down at the seat next to the window.

"Che...it's just a cabin..." Kanda muttered as he took the seat across the mage.

"But...it's the first time I've been on one like this similar to this, the previous time was in record country." Fay replied, placing his arms behind his head in a laid back manner, "Yuu-kun,"

"Shut up, and stop calling me by my first name!"

Fay opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a soft cackling from the earring communicator which Komui gave them before they left.

"Hello, is there anybody there?" Fay happily called through the communicator, as though he was talking through a phone.

"Fay-san? Have you completed the mission already?" Komui's voice rang through the golem.

"Yeah, we've managed to find Kuro-rin and Yuu-kun." Lavi answered, earning death glares from them.

"That's great news, however, there's no need to return to headquarters just yet, I've got another mission for you." Komui began, "There had been reports on a strange incidence recently."

"What kind of strange incidence?" Kanda asked.

"Finders were coming in with reports about a Sakura flower which causes various weather phenomenons wherever it goes," Fay and Kurogane exchanged glances at the mention of the sakura flower, "and anybody who came within a hundred meters from the flower, it vanishes."

"That could be the princess' feather." Kurogane guessed.

"Or another piece of innocence" Lavi added.

"Yes...both theories are possible. Based on our most recent reports, the flower is somewhere in the Swiss Alps." Komui continued, "Try to regroup with Allen-kun and the others, they are on this mission as well."

"Wait, if moyashi and the others are on the mission, why are we regrouping with them." Kanda asked, crossing his arms.

"Finders are coming in with reports that they're fighting against two noahs and they might require a bit of help." Komui answered.

"We got it," Fay and Lavi answered in unison before the transmission went dead.

"I can't believe I'm still stuck with you two, luckily that white manjuu isn't here to make it worse." Kurogane grumbled.

"I agree..."

"Don't be so grumpy, you two" Lavi replied cheerfully, "besides, Allen and the others are in Switzerland as well."

"…that makes it worse…"

"Che, I'd rather stick with their group than you two." Kurogane snapped, starting forward.

"Kuro-daddy misses Mokona, isn't that right?" Fay teased.

"Shut up!" Kurogane snapped once again.

* * *

It had seemed they had been playing for hours. Both sides had lost an equal number of pawns and it was still difficult to tell which side was winning.

"I can't lose right anymore, otherwise, Link's life would be in danger." Lenalee thought as she planned her next move.

"It can't be helped, there must be some sacrifices during a war, and you can't save everyone." Road replied as she waited patiently for Lenalee to make her move, who hesitated before closing her eyes as she decided on her move.

Unlike Lenalee, Road had decided her next move almost immediately. Directing the bishop chess piece, or rather an illusion of Tyki towards one of the pawns, that happened to be an illusion of Suman Dark.

Anguished screams could be heard as the chess piece was being destroyed. At the same time, Link was stabbed by yet another one of Road's candlesticks.

"Link-san!" Sakura gasped, her hands flew up to cover her mouth as uncontrolled tears came running down her cheeks.

"Check." Road calmly said as Tyki stepped onto the space that was previously occupied by Suman Dark.

"What do we do now?" Sakura nervously thought, "one wrong move may cause us to lose the entire game."

Cautiously, Lenalee directed the king chess piece away from Road's line of attack. Smiling quietly, Road made her next move which would very likely jeopardise both Lenalee and Sakura chances of winning the chess game, if they were to make a wrong move.

Before Lenalee could decide on her next move, Sakura stepped onto the space making her vulnerable to Road's attack.

"Sakura, no!" Lenalee cried as Sakura made her move.

"Lenalee-san, it would allow us to win, once Road moves to attack, you are able to checkmate her king!" Sakura replied.

Road immediately realized that she had somehow made the wrong move a while ago. However, Road hardly seemed shocked at the sudden turn of events, she was aware that the Earl was in the midst of creating a much bigger plan that would involve both exorcists and noahs.

"_All right, looks like they win this time"_ she thought as she walked towards Sakura.

Using one of her candlesticks, Road stabbed Sakura who cried out in pain. Sakura crumpled to the floor, clutching her side where Road had just stabbed her.

"Checkmate," Lenalee said quietly, as she made her move, trying to be calm as possible before.

"Yes, and I've lost. But this isn't the end yet, the Millennium Earl had something much bigger in store for you guys, I'll take my leave now." Road said.

"Oh, That reminds me, I'll take her along with me." The noah of dreams said and with a wave of her hand, the half-conscious Sakura was lifted off from the ground.

"Sakura!" Lenalee cried,

"L-L-Lenalee-san..."

"Road, let her go this instant." Lenalee said her voice dangerously calm.

"I'm afraid that can't be done, she's too important to us at the moment." Road replied, unfazed by the tone of Lenalee's voice.

"If we're done talking, I should take my leave now."

"Sakura!" Lenalee shouted once again, as Road stepped through the door, along with Sakura. Before the exorcist could even take a step forward to stop them, a strong gust of wind forced her to remain at her spot. All that she could do was to raise her arms in order to protect herself.

* * *

"Lenalee! Are you alright? Where's Sakura?" Mokona's worried voice bombarded her with questions.

Lenalee slowly opened her eyes, realizing that she back in the real world. The girl slowly looked over to Mokona who hovered over Link's unconscious form, registering the worried questions that had just been asked.

"Mokona, Sakura-san was..." she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.

"I understand..."

Before Lenalee could say another word, a rather large tremor shook the ground. Initially, Lenalee thought it was an earthquake or an oncoming landslide. However, as she turned towards the source of the tremor, she turned rather pale.

The fortress that was made by the level three akuma was crumbling, threatening to bury whoever remained within it. Lenalee wanted to rush over to see if Allen and Syaoran had managed to make it out of the fortress. However, she couldn't risk leaving a rather badly injured Link alone. Anxiety filled both Lenalee and Mokona's hearts as they could only watch and hope that Allen and Syaoran had made it out safely from the fortress. Gradually, the tremors ceased as the fortress completely crumbled, forming a cloud of smoke and debris along with it, making it difficult for Lenalee to see if there was anybody, let alone Syaoran and Allen.

The cloud of debris never seemed to clear. Coughing slightly, Allen squinted through the smoke, trying to find a way out. Syaoran was also doing the same, although they could barely see what was right in front of them. Slowly, as they moved away from the fallen fortress, the smoke cleared.

"Lenalee! Mokona-san!" Allen called as he spotted them from the distance.

"Allen-kun, Syaoran," Lenalee replied, relieved that they were okay.

"Are you all right?" Allen asked worriedly.

"Where's Sakura?"

"She-" Lenalee faltered, unable to continue. Though it wasn't said, Syaoran knew the answer to it. Noticing the expression on Lenalee's face, he quickly changed the subject.

"Link-san's injuries look quite serious; we need to get him to the nearest hospital fast."

"Yeah...But all of you need some medical attention, we'll have to get to the nearest hospital fast" Lenalee agreed, helping Allen to support Link's unconscious body. Of the group, she was the only one who did not sustain any serious injuries apart from a few scratches and bruises. Ever since her innocence had changed from equipment to crystal type, it was almost possible for her to avoid any attack that was directed at her. As the group started off, a shout caused them to stop in their tracks and turn around, only find that a group of finders were headed in their direction.

"Exorcist-sama!" Allen and the others turned their head to find that a group of finders had managed to catch up with them.

"Thank goodness you're all right; we have to get you back to treat your injuries first." One of the finders said "also, there's something you should know about your mission."

"What is it about our mission?" Allen asked curiously, gratefully accepting the finders' help in supporting Link's body.

"We'll explain it later...but right now your injuries must be treated." The finder replied, as the group slowly made their way to the hospital.

* * *

_A/N: Chapter 11 is done...actually it's re-edited. I wasn't really satisfied with the ending of the previous draft so I took it down to re-edit it...hopefully it's alright for you guys. Sorry it hasn't been uploaded earlier, because ever since the start of the school semester, there's a whole lot of projects which needs to be done within the next week and I have hardly enough time to actually upload this...Chapter 12 is already in progress..._

_Please read & review!^^_


	12. Chapter 12

_A/N: Finally I've managed to have the time to squeeze in an update...Sorry, I have been really busy throughout the time I last posted chapter 11...now, I'm nearly half-dead...Anyway, on another note, a REALLY BIG THANK YOU to those who reviewed so far, you guys made my day!_

_Enjoy the story~! As usual the disclaimer applies (though I haven't been posting the disclaimer regularly online...xD), I do not own any of the characters from Tsubasa Chronicles and DGM, I only own the story plot. =P_

**_

* * *

_**

**_Recap_**

"_Exorcist-sama!" Allen and the others turned their head to find that a group of finders had managed to catch up with them._

"_Thank goodness you're all right; we have to get you back to treat your injuries first." One of the finders said "also, there's something you should know about your mission."_

"_What is it about our mission?" Allen asked curiously, gratefully accepting the finders' help in supporting Link's body._

"_We'll explain it later...but right now your injuries must be treated." The finder replied, as the group slowly made their way to the hospital._

* * *

Morning came. The train chugged to a stop at its destination, a horn whistle signalled its arrival to the early morning crowd who hardly took notice of it except for the train conductors who immediately ran to their stations preparing to do their duties. As the train finally came to a halt, steam filled the surrounding and the first few passengers tiredly stepped down from the train, among the passengers, four men who were dressed mostly in black had also stepped out. As they stepped out of the train, a finder immediately rushed towards them.

"Thank goodness, you have arrived safely, exorcist-sama." The finder panted, as he caught up to them.

"Whatever, just tell us anything we need to know." Kanda replied curtly.

"Yes, currently Allen and the others are hospitalised due to serious injuries they've inflicted when they were fighting two of the noahs." The finder relayed the message.

"What do the noahs look like?" Lavi asked, the happy-go-lucky part of him vanished as soon as the finder had mentioned about the shocking news.

"Sorry, I'm afraid that Allen-san and the others would be able to answer this because by the time we got there, the enemy had fled."

"So…could you direct us to the hospital?" Kurogane asked.

"S-Sure, follow me please."

* * *

Allen slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the sudden brightness that was filtering through the window next to his bed. Judging from the brightness of the light, it was roughly around midday.

"Good morning."

"Fay-san?" Allen turned his head to the direction of Fay's voice.

"You were quite a deep sleeper; the doctor had mentioned you had slept since the previous night" Lavi noted, leaning against the door.

"What about Lenalee and Syaoran-san? And how is Link?" Allen asked, completely ignoring Lavi's comment.

"Due to the extent of injuries, Link-san is still resting but he's awake, however, Lenalee and Syaoran-kun had gone ahead with Mokona to search for any leads which might help us find Sakura." Fay replied.

"I'll help with the search as well" Allen protested, getting off the bed.

"There's no need, Lenalee and Mokona would be back any minute." Fay smiled, gently restraining the boy.

Allen was about to give a reply when he heard an all familiar voice. Immediately, he tried to look over the magician's and bookman junior's shoulder to get a better glimpse of the girl he was so worried over.

"I'm back, Allen-kun, I'm glad you're awake." Lenalee smiled walking towards Allen.

"How did the investigations go?" Allen asked.

"Nothing much...but Mokona is still able to sense her!" Mokona replied, being the most cheerful of the group.

"Then why are you so happy about?!" Kurogane snapped.

"Mokona could also sense the feathers within Sakura! But it's faint though. I'm being optimistic!" Mokona replied as she hopped onto Lavi, settling quite comfortably down on his head.

"That's it, we're setting off tomorrow." Kanda decided, standing up, preparing to leave.

"Wait, the Earl and the noah clan have their new ark and we still don't know anything about it." Allen pointed out.

"Yeah, you've got a point, besides how are we going to sneak into the ark without alerting the Earl and the noah?" Lavi replied.

"Che, it's so troublesome." Kurogane muttered.

* * *

The exorcists all tried to come up with various ways on how to infiltrate the noah's ark. However, to Syaoran, Kurogane, Fay and Mokona, this was something entirely new, but from what they could get from the discussion was that the ark was some sort of transportation that could get a person to another location in a matter of minutes and seconds.

"Ah…getting inside without the enemy noticing is rather tricky, but are there any disguises we can take on?" Fay asked, randomly guessing.

"Hmm…that's true…the last time General Cross had sneaked into the ark disguised as a skull…" Lenalee said quietly.

"Right…But Master had Maria that time to conceal his presence." Allen replied.

"I've got an idea…it's going to sound crazy but fun." Lavi suddenly gave an evil grin, looking immediately in Allen's direction.

"W-W-Wait…what's with that look? Stop looking at me like that!" Allen panicked, looking at the others for any help.

* * *

Sakura slowly opened her eyes, looking around at the darkness that cloaked the entire room, save for a few candy-stick-like lamps hanging around in mid-air. It had taken her a few seconds to realize that it was the snowy mountains where she and the others were on a mission. Sitting up, she gazed around wondering if someone is around the seemingly dark and empty room. Deciding to explore the place, Sakura stood up and tried to move forward. However, after a few steps she took, Sakura had collided with an invisible barrier.

"Where am I?" a simple thought ran through her mind.

"You're in the noah's ark." Road's voice replied, causing Sakura to turn in shock.

"Who's there?" Sakura asked, slightly panicking, shocked that someone could actually read her thoughts.

"It's just me." Road came out from the shadows, lazily licking on a lollipop.

"Road..." Sakura acknowledged, her expression hardening.

"Good, you remember my name." Road replied with an almost bored expression.

"What do you want?"

"Actually, I wanted to play with you but I'm on guard duty till the Earl gets back. He's really interested in your weapon."

"Weapon?" Sakura momentarily couldn't recall.

"Innocence," she replied, giving a sadistic smile, "your innocence holds great power."

Sakura gasped slightly, knowing full well it was her feather or rather, memory was the reason that the noahs took notice of her. However, she dared not let this thought wander through her mind, lest the noah of dreams read it. Luckily, Road didn't seem to notice anything.

"Yo, Road, the Earl told me you'd be here." A smooth rather silky voice greeted.

"Tyki, it's so boring...are you sure that the Earl said that I can't play with her?" Road asked, pouting.

"Yup, the Earl said that you might get hurt if you play with dangerous things." Tyki continued, lighting up a cigarette.

"But-" Road whined, obviously not happy with the answer.

"You don't want to make the earl mad, right?" the noah of pleasure continued, "Ah, I know, why don't you play with the akuma to kill time?"

"But it's still boring!" Road whined, "it's still better than having guard duty." She continued, displaying a rather sadistic smile that made Sakura flinch slightly with fear.

Road clicked her fingers and almost immediately, an akuma appeared in front of her. The akuma, a level two knelt down in respect to the noah.

"Road-sama" the akuma greeted respectfully.

"Get up. I want you to play with me for a while." Road pointed at him, her expression rather serious.

As the akuma stood, Road continued with her instructions. "I want you to dodge my attacks, hopefully you'll be a challenge."

The akuma's eyes widened in shock, obviously not expecting that the task had only one option, he had thought that he was summoned so that he could kill the female exorcist that was held captive within an invisible barrier.

Sakura was also in shock. As soon as the akuma appeared, she had once again saw the soul of the akuma, wrapped up and writhing and as Road revealed her instructions, the soul was practically screaming at Sakura to do something about saving it's soul as when it is destroyed by dark powers, it cannot be free.

How could there be someone so cruel and heartless exist in this world? Though she met numerous villains along in her journey with Syaoran, Sakura, Fay, Kurogane and Mokona, none of them were like Road. Sakura wanted to shout badly to protest, however, her voice was completely stuck, unwilling to come out.

"One, two, three, start." Road counted.

The akuma hardly have any time to react, by the time the noah had counted to two, it had only managed to turn back and run. Then, everything happened in slow motion, Road was aiming her hand which has a beam right at the akuma's back. The moment she had reached three, Road released the beam and it went straight for the akuma.

"STOP IT!!!"

Both Tyki and Road looked up in slight shock only to see that another beam had stuck the akuma before Road's beam had. The akuma then dissolved into sakura petals, which danced around the dark room, almost as if to try and make the room brighter from its gloomy state.

"Oh? The little miss innocence is rather powerful, I'd say." Tyki commented, rather amused at the sudden power display.

Sakura stood in shock, with her anti-akuma weapon in her hands, she wasn't sure how she had managed to pull out the gun and shoot at the akuma before Road's beam could reach it without any hesitation at all. It was probably because of the akuma's soul who desperately urged her to fire before Road's beam reached. Sakura figured a few seconds later.

Unfortunately, Road wasn't at all happy that her game had been destroyed. She was about to use her powers against Sakura until Tyki stopped her.

"Tyki, she spoiled my game." Road whined, trying to break free from Tyki's firm grip.

"Road, we'll only deal with her when the Earl gets back. It seems that her innocence was a little more troublesome than the ones we've destroyed so far." Tyki repeated, this time elaborating a little more.

"Why didn't you say that earlier? But it's a pity, I was planning to ask the earl whether I could keep her as a doll, she'll be quite fun to play with." Road replied, calmly walking towards the chair and sat down.

Sakura listened to their conversation, with the increasing ominous feeling in her heart. Whatever are these guys planning to do to her wasn't going to be pleasant, her thoughts drifted over to Syaoran, who would save her from any sort of danger she's in.

"Syaoran-kun..." Sakura thought, trying to prevent her tears from flowing down her cheeks.

* * *

Meanwhile, Syaoran and the others had managed to get a hold on the coats that the skulls had worn during the level four attack at the HQ. Unfortunately for Allen, he was the only one without a disguise but with a good reason.

"Wait...where did you get these coats from?" Allen asked, slightly panicking, unaware of the plan that was about to unfold.

"I got it from the science department...surprisingly they kept after the level four attack." Lavi replied.

"Che, why do we have to wear this? It would have been easier if we just attacked directly." Kurogane grumbled while looking at the coat the skull mask he had been given.

As soon as the comment was said, there was a gentle tap on his right shoulder. Without expecting anything, Kurogane turned, only to come face to face with a skull.

"Uwah!!!" the latter shouted in surprise.

Soon, laughter had erupted from the skull, only to reveal that Fay and Mokona had just played a prank on him.

"See? I told you Kuro-sama will get a shock as always." Fay laughed.

"I must tell Yuuko about this, she'll definitely tease him till no end." Mokona replied, unable to stop laughing as well.

"Don't you two dare run anywhere." Kurogane threatened, his temper gradually rising to dangerous levels.

As usual, Fay and Mokona did not bother to listen and ran off with an angry Kurogane swinging his katana dangerously and chased them. Allen and the others could only watch, no matter how they view it, it was like they were completely not worried about the rescue mission at all.

"Maybe we should try this on Yuu someday." Lavi suggested jokingly, earning himself a death glare from the latter.

"He'll probably get rid of you for real if you were to do that on him." Lenalee replied.

"Unfortunately, that's true..." Lavi mockingly sighed.

"Ah, Lavi-san, when are we going to put our plan in action?" Syaoran asked. He had been rather quiet ever since Sakura had been taken by the noahs.

"Tomorrow. After a good night's rest." Lavi smiled, knowing that Syaoran was extremely worried for Sakura even though the boy did not openly express it.

"But what's the plan so far?" Allen piped up, realizing that Lavi hasn't mentioned any details at all about the plan of his.

"We'll use you as bait." The Bookman junior simply replied, "The rest of us would pretend to have caught you and try to bluff our way through into the ark, it's the safest way I could think of."

"What?!"

* * *

_A/N: I've finally finished chapter 12!! Once again, I'm really sorry for not updating for quite a while. The details of Lavi's plan will be revealed in the next chapter...I've already started on the next chapter. =)_

_Please read & review~! =)_


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: Here's the 13th chapter of the story! Apologies for not updating any earlier...I had been busy and rather occupied...ehehe...^^;; Unfortunately, this chapter had to be a little shorter compared to the other previous chapters...but the next few chapters will definitely be longer than this one and maybe some of the other previous chapters as well.^-^ The usual disclaimer applies and..._

_Enjoy the chapter! _

_

* * *

Recap_

"_Ah, Lavi-san, when are we going to put our plan in action?" Syaoran asked. He had been rather quiet ever since Sakura had been taken by the noahs._

"_Tomorrow. After a good night's rest." Lavi smiled, knowing that Syaoran was extremely worried for Sakura even though the boy did not openly express it._

"_But what's the plan so far?" Allen piped up, realizing that Lavi hasn't mentioned any details at all about the plan of his._

"_We'll use you as bait." The Bookman junior simply replied, "The rest of us would pretend to have caught you and try to bluff our way through into the ark, it's the safest way I could think of."_

"_What?!"_

* * *

"Lavi, why me? Can't you be the bait instead?" Allen asked, obviously not enthusiastic about the whole plan the bookman junior had in mind.

"Put it this way, you know how to control the ark with the piano the last time and the noahs' attention will be definitely on you, remember how Lulubell tried to take you away during the level four attacks?" Lavi explained, choosing his words carefully.

"Yeah, you've got a point there…" Allen replied, his expression turning slightly depressed upon realising Lavi's point of the whole idea.

Lenalee immediately noticed this and painfully nudged Lavi in the ribs before replying "Don't worry, Allen-kun, we won't let them take you that easily."

"That's what I'm least worried about..."

"Excuse me~, sorry to interrupt the conversation but Syaoran-kun, Mokona, Kuro-pon and I are not quite understanding what you guys are discussing here…" Fay said in his usual carefree voice.

Allen, Lenalee, Kanda and Lavi looked at each other, exchanging glances. After a moment's silence, Allen turned to the rest, "It cannot be helped. We'll have to tell them everything."

The exorcists took the next half an hour to explain things to Syaoran and the rest about the events that happened just before their strange arrival, meaning the incident when the level four attack the Black Order Headquarters. As the tale unravelled, understanding began to dawn on each of their faces regarding about the conversation earlier.

"I see…so Allen-san is somehow the 14th who betrayed the noah clan and is able to control the previous ark?" Syaoran asked.

"Yup, so that's why he's essential for our plan to work." Lavi replied.

"Che, we could just leave the moyashi to fend for himself after we get in." Kanda commented, speaking for the first time in a long while.

"What did you just say?" Allen twitched, ready to fight should Kanda made the first move.

"Moyashi..." before Kanda could continue whatever he wanted to say, Allen interrupted.

"My name is Allen! Bakanda!"

"As long as you're shorter than me, you're still known as moyashi to me" Kanda retorted back.

Insults flew back and forth between the quarrelling pair. The argument might have been capable of going on for hours if not for Lenalee intervening with her dark boots. It had seemed that she was the only one capable of stopping the fight since Syaoran would most likely be ignored by the bickering pair while Fay and Lavi would be more likely to worsen the situation, leaving Lenalee as the only option of ever stopping it.

"Give it a rest!!" Lenalee yelled, successfully getting the attention of the other two.

"As expected from Lenalee, Kanda and Allen can't really win when it comes to Lenalee." Lavi laughed, as he watched the amusing scene whereby Lenalee was pulling at both Allen's and Kanda's ears scolding them as if they were two misbehaving kids.

"She looks just like a mother from here." Fay smiled as well enjoying the scene.

"Che..."

"What's wrong, Kuro-daddy?"

"Nothing we should get some rest before tomorrow...and do not call me with anymore nicknames" Kurogane sighed before snapping as he registered the all too familiar nickname that was constantly given to him by Fay and sometimes Mokona.

"Syaoran, it'll be fine, we'll rescue Sakura and continue on our journey," Mokona tried to reassure Syaoran, who had not spoken a word during the entire discussion.

"It's alright, Mokona, I'm fine." He smiled reassuringly.

"All right, now time to get some sleep before tomorrow comes!" Fay announced, leaving the room for the night, shortly followed by the others.

* * *

"I'm home~" the Earl sang as he skipped through the entrance of the new ark. Apparently, the mission that the Earl was doing had been a success.

"Welcome back, Millennium Earl" Road came up and hugged him.

"Road, let go of the Millennium Earl, he's had a long day." Tyki appeared shortly after Road.

"Ok, I'm just showing my affections." Road replied, finally letting go of the rounded figure of the Earl.

"Yes, yes." The Earl replied while gently patting the head of Road.

"Earl, the girl had an amazing power and she might be the heart judging from that stunt she pulled just now." Tyki explained.

"You may have a point, but I'm suspecting that the heart had more than one decoy around. Also, it is better that we check on the other innocence first before making any conclusions." The Earl replied, not wanting to make any mistakes this time.

"That's true, now that we have five possible innocence that may be the heart..." Tyki agreed.

"So annoying..." the Earl sighed in a mocking tone.

"Alright, Earl, what do we do now?" Road walked alongside him as he strolled down the seemingly endless corridor.

"We'll wait." He replied simply, "but Road, just in case, could you make the girl hypnotised just like you did with the other exorcist girl that time."

Road looked slightly surprised at first but quickly recovered as she realized what the Earl meant.

"Yay! I get to add one more doll to my collection." Road cheered, giving the Earl yet another hug.

"Earl, are you saying that the exorcists are going to come right here in the ark?" Tyki asked, noticing the oddness in the conversation as well.

"Tyki-pon, we must be prepared in case there's any unsurprised guests coming to give a house call." The earl replied, placing his hands round his back and casually walked forward, leaving Tyki standing there, trying to figure out the underlying meaning.

"Tyki, let's go. We're going to have guests later and we better invite some other guests of our own as well, the more the merrier." Road whined, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Yes, yes, don't need to be so impatient now. We have plenty of time in our hands." Tyki smiled as he finally figured out what the Earl meant.

* * *

"All set?" Lavi yelled to the group who merely nodded their heads. All of them had their disguises on, except for Allen.

"Ok, then, let's go!" Fay punched his fist into the air.

"Hey, this isn't exactly a field trip." Kurogane muttered, joining the front with Lavi and Fay.

"I'm trying to lighten a bit of the atmosphere; Syaoran-kun looks like he didn't sleep much last night."

Meanwhile, Allen and Lenalee walked on either side of Syaoran who looked a bit quieter than usual. The trio walked on in silence a little more before Allen decided to break the silence, suddenly remembering about Link.

"Lenalee, do you think that it's okay to leave Link at the hospital? He'll most likely be mad when he wakes up." Allen asked moving next to Lenalee.

"I think he would be fine...besides that person isn't there to keep an eye on him." Lenalee replied her expression darkening upon mentioning that person: Rouvelier.

"Do you think we should say something to assure Syaoran-san?" Allen whispered, quickly changing the subject.

"What should we say?"

"Ah...Syaoran-san, don't worry, we'll find a way to rescue Sakura." Allen began nervously, hoping that he had chosen the right words.

Syaoran looked slightly surprised upon hearing Allen's comment but replied with a small smile, "I'm fine but I'm more worried about whether the noahs had done anything to harm her."

"She should be fine, Sakura's a strong girl. Besides, I don't think the noahs would do anything to her for now, that is." Lenalee smiled.

"Yeah, that's true." Syaoran replied. "But they might be searching for the other feather that had landed in your world."

"That may be true...but we should focus on saving Sakura first." Allen replied. "With any luck, the feather might appear in the noah's ark."

"Hopefully..."

"Oh? What do we have here?" a couple humans came in the opposite direction on the road that the exorcists are travelling on, "shouldn't you skulls be inside the noah's ark?"

Allen, Lenalee and Syaoran immediately tensed the moment they heard their voices. Both Syaoran and Lenalee quickly grabbed Allen's arm while the latter pretended to be unconscious. All three of them were hoping that neither of the akumas had noticed their brief movement.

"Looks like you have managed to capture the boy that the noahs are looking for." One of the akumas noted. It had seemed that neither of the two had noticed anything odd with the group.

"Yes, and we would like to know where do we locate the ark." Fay, or rather Mokona spoke in a much deeper voice, using her 108 secret skills; voice impersonation.

"But don't you have the ability to transport to the ark?" the other akuma enquired, starting to get a little suspicious.

"We were just taking precautions just in case. Do we even need to consult you two about this?" Mokona threatened, hoping that the bluff had worked.

"Uhh...no, of course not, we were just making sure that it is not an impostor." The two akumas replied nervously, they were obviously taken in by the bluff.

"Then, will you give us the directions?"

"Just walk along this path till you see an abandoned cottage, that's where one of the gates to the ark are, we'll just be on our way." The akumas disappeared before another sentence could be uttered.

The group started along the path, not speaking until they were sure that the akumas were far enough to hear their conversation.

"That was pretty amazing feat you did back there, how did you do it?" Lavi asked excitedly, after making sure that the akumas were far off.

"Se. cr. et" Mokona replied, pronouncing every syllable.

"We've reached the gate." Kanda announced, coming to a stop at the cottage just like the two akumas had mentioned earlier before.

The cottage did look deserted, almost like the one Kurogane and Kanda had encountered in their previous mission. However, instead of a normal door, there was a black slab with a number imprinted at the very top of it. That was unmistakably the gate to the noah's ark.

"This is it, everyone. Let's enter."

* * *

_A/N: In case anyone's wondering, the two akumas in the story had to be a little more dumb in the story otherwise this chapter might have turned into another fight scene. Sorry once again for making this chapter short, it's rather necessary...the action officially begins in the next two chapters...but I hoped you've enjoyed this chapter though^^ Please review too, i want to know how i did for this chapter...hopefully, I can put up the next chapter soon enough..._

_Once again, hope you've enjoyed this chapter and this story so far^^_


	14. Chapter 14

**_A/N: Konnichiwa minnasan! I've decided to post this chapter early since I've already been planning the scenes in the chapter for quite some time now...Also, it's officially been a year since I've started writing this fic. Time do really flies...Not forgetting as well, to all my reviewers, a BIG thank you to all of you, you guys are the best! =D Before going ahead to start the chapter, here's the disclaimer:_**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own D gray man and Tsubasa Chronicles. Both of them are owned by Hoshino and CLAMP respectively. All I own is the plot of this story._**

**_Ok, with the disclaimer done, now on with the story! Enjoy! =)_**

_

* * *

Recap_

"_We've reached the gate." Kanda announced, coming to a stop at the cottage just like the two akumas had mentioned earlier before._

_The cottage did look deserted, almost like the one Kurogane and Kanda had encountered in their previous mission. However, instead of a normal door, there was a black slab with a number imprinted at the very top of it. That was unmistakably the gate to the noah's ark._

"_This is it, everyone. Let's enter." _

* * *

One by one, the group entered the ark by passing through the barrier which seems as if it is made out of liquid. Syaoran had stepped through the barrier last. He felt the liquid on his skin as if he was stepping through water and was certain he was going to be drenched the moment he reached the other side. However, Syaoran realised there was not a trace of liquid on him.

"Surprised?" Allen smiled, "it's probably some kind of magic they used." He continued explained.

"That's true, I can sense the magic coming from within this place. It's rather strong." Fay commented, scanning the area while removing his disguise, "the noahs seemed to have a taste for gothic decoration...kinda reminds me of Halloween"

"Yeah, the previous ark didn't look anything like this. The previous one was full of whitewashed buildings as far as I could remember." Allen replied as the group wandered through the seemingly endless corridor.

"I wonder where Sakura is..." Mokona wondered out loud.

"Can't you use your powers to find her?" Kanda whispered, given under normal circumstances he would have shouted instead.

"I can sense her...but she's really faint..." Mokona replied, lowering her head in disappointment.

"It's all right, Mokona, we'll find Sakura, no matter what it takes." Syaoran reassured Mokona.

"Which way should we go?" Lenalee asked suddenly stopping. Ahead of her, the corridor had been split in three different directions and each of them seemed to look the same as the other.

"hmm....it's a difficult choice...Mokona, do you sense Sakura anywhere?" Fay paused, turning to her.

"I can sense her but she's seems to be too far away for me to tell exactly which direction she's in." Mokona replied.

"I see, then we'll just have to try our luck with one of these corridors. We can't afford to split up since the noahs might take us down more easily." Allen replied.

"Yeah..." Lenalee agreed.

As the exorcists carefully decided on which route should they take, Allen looked around, noticing the portraits hanging on the wall. Every portrait showed the noahs and the Earl...and strangely there were portraits of a human as well. _"Strange...the last time I remember, the Earl and the noahs couldn't care less about humans so why is there a portrait of a human here?"_ Allen thought as he made his way closer to the particular portrait.

The portrait's background was unlike the other portraits which contained one or two noahs standing or sitting behind a dim background. The portrait, however, had a much brighter background. Within it, the man was wearing a suit as well as a top hat, a monocle over his left eye and there was a strangely calm expression on his face as he sat on chair which was rather exquisitely designed and from the looks of it. The furniture might have been manufactured during the Victorian era.

"_How is this man connected to the noahs?"_ Allen wondered, his gaze wandered to the other portraits that had noahs in it, some of which he had recognized while there were others which he didn't recognised at all.

"They're probably the previous noahs or noahs that we haven't met yet..." Allen muttered, staring up at all the portraits. Unconsciously, his mind began to wonder about the 14th. Would his portrait still be up here among if he hadn't betrayed the Millennium Earl and the noah clan? If the 14th hadn't betrayed them, Allen would have been free of all the current problems that he had with Rouvelier and the central, most of it, that is.

"Go left, you'll find what you seek..." a mysterious voice suddenly sounded, catching Allen off guard.

"Who's there?" he looked around wildly for the source of the voice.

"Go left, you'll find what you seek..." the voice had once again repeated.

This time, Allen had realized that the voice had belonged to the 14th. The others didn't seem to notice the voice had given them directions as Allen turned behind, none of them appeared to have heard anything at all.

"Maybe we should continue on straight, by going in a straight line, you'll never know that it's the right path." Lavi suggested.

"No, we should go left." Allen objected as he walked towards the group.

"What makes you think so?" Kurogane asked, turning around to face him.

"umm....how should I put it...its just intuition." Allen replied, smiling slightly, hoping that the others would agree with him without any objections.

"Allen, I hate to say this but you don't really have a good intuition..." Lavi started jokingly.

"But I think it's best to follow Allen-san, you'll never know that the path is actually the correct path." Syaoran said.

"If the boy agrees, then I'll just follow along."

"Me too!" Both Fay and Mokona raised their hands into the air.

"Looks like we have a majority." Lenalee smiled.

As the exorcists headed in the direction, Lenalee had lightly grasped Allen's hand and moved towards the front of the group.

"You're the leader for this." Lenalee said, answering the white-haired exorcist's unanswered question.

"Hehe...you two are just made for each other..." Lavi snickered, earning a glare from both Allen and Lenalee.

"That's right! Aww...they make such a sweet couple." Mokona agreed, hopping from Fay's to the bookman's junior shoulder.

"I agree..." Syaoran replied too.

This time, Allen and Lenalee had only blushed, not turning back in case the teasing might take a turn for the worse from their point of view. Unknown to the exorcists, their presence in the ark had already been known. A figure stayed within the shadows watched intently as the small group moved along the corridor.

"Kanda-san, is there something wrong?" Syaoran turned, noticing that the samurai had stopped momentarily.

"...it's nothing..." Kanda replied shortly after he had given the area a final look before continuing on.

"there's something or someone watching us, right?" Syaoran asked, trailing behind Kanda.

"...how did you know?" Kanda was surprised for a moment but quickly masked his expression.

"Kurogane-san had taught me when we were in Ōto country." Syaoran replied.

"I see..." Kanda was rather impressed that Syaoran was able to notice the strange presence he had felt earlier.

"Ah, I can see something up front." Allen called, coming to a stop.

In front of them, there were six identical doors which only can be distinguished by the respective numbers labelled on them.

"What now? Hey moyashi, use your intuition again." Kanda folded up his arms impatiently.

"That won't be necessary." Another voice replied, before Allen could. Somehow, this voice had sounded strangely familiar to Allen, Lenalee and Lavi.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Kurogane demanded, taking out his weapon and activated it. The others had done the same, ready for any surprise attack that may be in store for them.

"Patience." The voice came again.

"ALLEN! LOOK OUT!" Lenalee screamed, as a rather large stream of liquid headed towards the exorcist's direction at a high speed.

Allen turned upon hearing Lenalee's warning and had just managed to avoid the impact directed at him the help of crown clown. After making sure that he had landed safely, he realized that the voice had belonged to none other than the noah of lust, Lulubell.

"Lulubell." Allen acknowledged the noah.

"That's Lulubell?! She looks completely different the last time we saw her." Lavi noted, surprised.

"Yeah, this is her true form." Allen answered while he kept his guard in case Lulubell launched another attack.

"Glad that you still remember me." The noah answered coldly, "now, you have to pay for foiling my previous mission!"

Before anyone could answer, the noah of lust had charged towards Allen with a newfound speed and the latter had barely managed to block himself by quickly transforming his anti-akuma weapon to a broad-edged sword.

"Allen-kun innocence could do that?" Fay asked, seemingly taken aback by the transformation.

"Yeah..." Lavi answered, "now, let's go and help Allen!"

"Mokona, hang on tight, it's going to be a little more fast-paced." Lenalee cautioned as Mokona had moved onto her shoulder.

"Ok."

"Dark boots, activate!" the blood-red rings on both of Lenalee's ankles began to glow and transform into the all familiar dark boots. Bending her knees slightly, Lenalee kicked off, almost causing Mokona to fall off from her shoulder.

"Mokona, are you alright?" Lenalee asked worriedly.

"I'm alright. Just concentrate on the fight." Mokona answered.

Lulubell's liquid form had proved it difficult to find a weak spot. Like water, solid objects had no effect on it, including innocence. Then again, although she may be liquid-like, Lulubell could unleash attacks which would not miss.

"See? This won't have any effect on me! Now it's my turn to attack." Lulubell laughed before attacking.

"She's fast; haven't had this kind of opponent in a while." Kurogane smirked as he skilfully dodged the incoming attack.

"Looks like Kuro-sama is enjoying this fight, right? Yuu-chan?" Fay asked.

"Don't ever call me by my first name again!" Kanda replied, giving a murderous look.

"Looks like he's having fun himself." Fay chuckled to himself, as he defended yet another attack by the noah.

"Ah, Lavi-san, could you use a lightning based attack to finish this off?" Fay called, after noting that Lavi's innocence was capable of using various elements.

"That's right, why didn't I think of that earlier?" Lavi smacked himself on the forehead, "Everyone, please try to get away from Lulubell!"

"Circle of Fire! Circle of Heaven! Combo seal: Strong thunder of the heavens!" Lavi yelled as he swung his hammer right at the noah.

Immediately, a combination of flame encircling lightning emerged from one of the hammer's end, taking the shape of some kind of dragon. The dragon immediately went straight for its target which had seemed unfazed about the sudden move.

"Smart move. But this is also pointless." With a wave of her hand, a ball of energy appeared and hit the dragon, diminishing it completely.

"Like I've said, your attacks are no match for me." Lulubell continued, enjoying the shocked expressions on their faces.

"Damn...it didn't work..." Allen growled.

"Lulubell, you might want to stop for now, killing the guests now would not make the Earl happy." Another voice suggested. This time, none of the exorcists recognized it.

"Surprised?" the older man asked, as the group turned to face him, "Well, let's start with the introductions, my name is Cyril, Tyki's big brother."

"I'm not here to do any damage today but you all are invited to join us for the party." Cyril continued, noticing that the exorcists had not made any move to reply.

"Umm...we're really sorry but we're not in the mood to join the party right now." Fay replied, deciding to play along.

"Hey...what are you saying?" Kanda quietly snapped at the magician who made no reply.

"Just let him be; Fay-san knows what he's doing." Syaoran replied.

"Che..."

"Really? I must insist that you attend the party. We've already invited one of your guests here and it's not very nice to just leave her alone here." Cyril smiled, watching as shock was slowly etched on their faces.

"Where's Sakura!" Syaoran asked, realizing where the noah was going.

"Be patient, boy, you'll see her soon enough." Cyril smiled, immensely enjoying the conversation, "Ah, speak of the devil, here she is."

Sakura emerged from the shadows, accompanied by Road. The exorcist uniform that Sakura had previously worn had been replaced by a simple black dress, with laces trimmed at the edges complimented with a matching choker around her neck.

"Sakura!" Syaoran called. The girl did not respond but instead stared blankly ahead. Syaoran tried to move forward but was soon stopped by Fay.

"Hold on, something isn't right." The magician said, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"You're quite observant. Anyway, are you ready to join the party?" Cyril asked, his tone suddenly turning serious.

* * *

_**A/N: Chapter 14 is completed! This chapter might be a little different from the other chapters due to the number of page breaks. Somehow, I didn't feel like doing any page breaks for this chapter mainly because I've only focused on one scene for this chapter. I just noticed this, the 14th made his appearance in the 14th chapter of my story! It's just coincidence, I didn't plan this. I swear! xD. Anyway, more action in the coming chapters ahead. Unfortunately, I've got some bad news: this fic is going to end soon...in another few chapters or so...but don't worry, there's also good news: I'm planning on writing another fic but I'm not sure which anime/manga category I should start on. I've put the poll on my profile and please take some time to vote. Thank you very much^^**_

_**Please read and review too! =)**_


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N: Finally I've finished chapter 15! Sorry that it took so long...I was caught up with life as well as planning some other future fics that might I upload after this story. Wow...ever since I've started this fic, the updates had gradually went from fortnightly to monthly. Hopefully, I can upload chapter 16 sooner...and get back on track...But right now, I'm going to get some sleep...I'm having a headache...=_=_

_Disclaimer: Same as the usual chapters..._

_Enjoy the chapter!_

_

* * *

**Recap**_

"_Where's Sakura!" Syaoran asked, realizing where the noah was going._

"_Be patient, boy, you'll see her soon enough." Cyril smiled, immensely enjoying the conversation, "Ah, speak of the devil, here she is."_

_Sakura emerged from the shadows, accompanied by Road. The exorcist uniform that Sakura had previously worn had been replaced by a simple black dress, with laces trimmed at the edges complimented with a matching choker around her neck._

"_Sakura!" Syaoran called. The girl did not respond but instead stared blankly ahead. Syaoran tried to move forward but was soon stopped by Fay._

"_Hold on, something isn't right." The magician said, narrowing his eyes slightly._

"_You're quite observant. Anyway, are you ready to join the party?" Cyril asked, his tone suddenly turning serious._

* * *

"Mokona can't feel the usual warmth that surrounds Sakura." Mokona pointed out, confirming the exorcists' suspicions.

"What are you noahs planning this time?" Kanda scowled, ignoring Cyril's question.

"That's right. And what have you done with Sakura?" Lenalee demanded, though she had a slight inkling on what it may be.

"Sakura-chan has officially become part of my doll collection." Road answered, emerging from the shadows, coming to a halt in between Sakura and Cyril, "Don't worry, if there's a chance, you may get to become my doll again." She continued, with a sadistic smile.

Immediately, Allen stood protectively in front of Lenalee, arms spread out as if to send out a warning to Road. The noah, however, remained unfazed.

"How are we going to get her out of the hypnosis? Miranda is not here and so is gramps, what are we going to do?" Lavi muttered, racking his brains for another solution that might help Sakura.

"Hey, do you have anything in mind? You're always the one with full of ideas." Kurogane turned towards Fay.

"The best way is probably to get Sakura-chan to snap out of it herself or to get Road-san to reverse it." Fay answered, listing out the options.

"Che, can't this white manjuu do anything about it?" Kanda asked, lifting up Mokona.

"But none of Mokona's 108 secret skills could not do that." Mokona replied.

"Looks like we have only one option lef-" Allen began, but before he could continue any further, the boy felt his mouth clamping shut, against his will.

"Mmph!" Allen's muffled voice came as he tried to open his mouth. Casting a quick glance at the others, they were also caught in the same predicament as him.

"I'm afraid that this discussion is getting too long." Cyril said, apparently being the mastermind of the previous action. "You have not answered my question."

"Now, now, Cyril, we must treat our guest with utmost hospitality." The earl tuttted, finally coming into view, "So nice for you to drop by but you won't be with us for very long."

"Earl…" Allen growled, preparing to attack any second.

"_Hime…"_ Syaoran worriedly thought as he looked into the now emotionless eyes of Sakura.

"That won't work. The only way for her to return to her normal self is that I remove the hypnotism myself." Road replied; startling Syaoran.

"Be careful, Road is able to read the thoughts of people's minds." Lavi warned, noticing the shock on Syaoran's face.

"I'm glad you remembered that, bookman junior." Road laughed, "But it isn't going to change the fact that time is running out for you."

"Mekkyo!" Mokona eyes suddenly went wide open briefly before returning to normal, "Everyone! Big news! The feather is somewhere near!" Almost as soon as the words left Mokona, Syaoran began to feel a searing pain across his left eye, as if those words had an effect on him.

"Syaoran, are you okay?!" Lenalee gasped as soon as she noticed that the boy had suddenly crouched down, clutching his left eye in the process.

* * *

In another area, or more specifically, another dimension, a sleeping figure suspended in some liquid struggled to awake. The smallest noticeable signs were that of the twitching of his hands. Despite the fact that the area was clear of any living presence, it was heavily guarded with magic. Within the entire area, the magic was the strongest in the glass cylinder. However, the magic was coming from the boy himself but rather it was a means for keeping him in.

The sleeping figure wore a black robe with a red symbol which eerily represented a bat. However, what was stranger was the boy looked identical to a certain person travelling across various dimensions alongside his other companions. The only difference was the eye patch that the sleeping figure wore over his left eye.

The figure continued to struggle to wake, not noticing that yet another person had walked into the room. Rather than alerting someone else about the sleeping figure attempts to regain consciousness, the newcomer simply stood and watched. After a few moments, the unconscious figure slowly opened his right eye by merely a fraction, then fully. His eye scanned the deserted room until it landed on the watching newcomer, who remained undaunted by his cold gaze.

Unfortunately for him, the effects of the magic were getting to him. His eyelid began to feel heavier and struggled to keep them open, with little results. However, during his struggle, his gaze never left the person who stood there motionlessly.

Just like the figure confined within the glass, the person matched his gaze with equal amount of coldness. The staring contest went on until the figure had no choice but to succumb to the magic. Seeing that the person had gone back to being unconscious, she began to walk away as if nothing had ever happened.

"The dream is going to come to an end soon."

* * *

The others gathered around Syaoran worriedly, wondering what was wrong. Seeing Syaoran clutching his left eye, Allen remembered the other time where his left eye had reacted while he was at the Asian branch HQ. For a moment, Allen had the strangest idea that Syaoran was cursed like he is.

"No...that's ridiculous...Syaoran couldn't be cursed like I am." Allen thought, immediately dismissing the thought immediately.

"Don't tell me..." Kurogane was starting to realize that this scene was all too familiar. Almost like the time in record country...

"What is?" Kanda questioned further, knowing that this is not going to bode well.

"In the previous world, the kid also had this experience when we fought the enemy." Kurogane explained, "Can you notice the aura change around him?"

Kanda's eyes widened with shock as he realized that the ninja was right. It was almost as if Syaoran was a whole different person who he didn't recognize at all.

"…I must obtain the feathers." Syaoran said monotonously, standing up.

"Syaoran, are you okay?" Allen tried to reach out but his hand was immediately slapped away by the latter, "Don't get in my way."

Before anyone could do or say anything, Syaoran took off in a different direction at an almost inhuman speed, leaving the exorcists, the Earl and the noahs slightly shocked.

"Oh my, it seems that one of our guests decided to leave early. But I'm afraid it's not possible." The Earl sighed mockingly, "Well, I leave it to all of you to take care of the rest of them." He continued, before going off in the same direction as Syaoran went before.

"We won't let you-" Allen started forward but was blocked by Tyki.

"Not so fast…" Tyki waved his finger in front of Allen's face.

"Get out of my way!" Allen swung his sword harshly at the noah of pleasure, who had avoided the attack smoothly.

"Unfortunately, we can't let you go just yet." Cyril interrupted, "Since we're aiming to get the same thing, why don't we try to work together for a while?"

"Che, we would never agree to work with you." Kanda spat.

"Oh? I'm afraid that you must agree…seeing that it would benefit both parties." Road grinned.

"Simple. We want to negotiate with you a simple truce." Tyki continued, obviously enjoying himself.

"Whatever you're proposing, we're not going to agree." Allen replied, knowing all too well that something is odd with the sudden suggestion.

"But I suggest you all have to agree otherwise we might not be so merciful to you later. Even if you don't think about yourselves, think about your friend here." Tyki continued gesturing towards Sakura, "she might suffer the consequences if you lot fail to agree..."

The exorcists were currently at a loss for words. Apart from the rest of them, only Allen, Lenalee and Lavi had this strange feeling that it's somewhat like their previous encounter with Road and Tyki in the old ark. This time, however, they were determined not to let it end the same way as before.

"...Sakura-san might be hypnotised. But what should we do?" Allen pondered, recalling the time where Lenalee had also been like that during their first encounter with the noahs or more specifically, Road.

"If you agree to work with us, I will return her back to her normal state." Road said, seeing that the exorcists were still hesitant on deciding.

It was a tempting offer. As much as Allen and the others were against the idea, the current situation left them with no choice. With an innocence that both parties have trouble locating in the area and Syaoran suddenly turning on them, it was better that to work with the noahs.

"I guess it can't be helped then, we'll work with you momentarily but once the innocence is found, we're no longer allies." Fay answered for the group.

"Hey! Don't just decide for us like this!" Kanda snapped.

"We don't really have much of a choice. If you have a better suggestion, you might want to bring it up now." Fay answered; his tone had caused Kanda to remain silent.

"Glad that you could see that. Now, here's the girl." Road replied, giving Sakura a light push, causing the girl to fall forward. Immediately, Fay went forward and caught Sakura before she managed to hit the ground.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Fay asked worriedly.

"...W-Where am I? And what's going on?" Sakura blinked, momentarily unable to recall what had happened to her earlier.

"Sakura! You're alright!" Mokona cheered as she hopped onto the girl's hands.

"...Where's Syaoran-kun?" Sakura looked around; noticing that the one person she seemed to care about the most isn't around.

"Syaoran...he..." Lenalee began but soon found the words unable to come out from her mouth.

"Let's go find Syaoran-kun." Lavi quickly covered up as soon as he noticed Sakura's worried expression.

"...Do you guys know where Syaoran went?" Allen turned and faced the noahs.

"We have no idea where the boy's heading but we might have an idea where the Earl is..." Cyril replied, fingering his top hat.

Before Allen and the others could reply, a resounding crash filled the room. Everyone turned and found that the source of the crash was none other than the noah of bonds; Jasdero and Devit.

"...Ouch...that was a harsh landing..." Devit got up painfully.

"Hey, you two, nice to see you back." Tyki called sarcastically.

"...could you sound a little more welcoming?!" Jasdero half-shouted at him before noticing that the exorcists were in the same room as well.

"Why are the exorcists in the ark?! They're not supposed to be here...unless they want a little rematch from the last time." Devit demanded as he and Jasdero readied to attack.

"Wait...weren't you guys on a mission for the Earl?" Road asked.

"Yeah...but our mission has led us here...We're supposed to track down that troublesome innocence!" Devit answered.

"We're searching for it as well...feel free to tag along..." Cyril replied smoothly before moving forward.

"Wait a minute. Why are the exorcists tagging along as well?" Devit pointed out.

"That's right! You'll get into trouble if the Earl finds out...Hi!" Jasdero continued, grinning as though he had finally caught the other noahs doing something that they shouldn't.

"Call this a temporary truce...and don't bother asking about the details, it's a long story." Road said shortly, indicating that the conversation should come to an end.

"I have a bad feeling that this isn't going to go well." Lenalee whispered to Allen, clutching his hand tightly. The exorcists were currently tagging along with the noahs. The atmosphere among the two groups was extremely tense and apart from Allen and Lenalee, the other exorcists were able to feel the tension too. The noahs, on the other hand were either not affected by the tension or they had decided to conceal their emotions about it.

"Me too...but like what Fay-san had said, we have no choice." Allen whispered back, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

* * *

_A/N: Please read and review! =)_


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N: Now I understand how Komui feels when he's being asked to do tons of paperwork...that's how pretty much my life at the moment. But right now, instead of completing a report, I'm here finishing up this chapter ^-^v Luckily for me there is no Reever or Lenalee to drag me back literally to do what I am supposed to do...or that may be a bad thing, but who knows...=P_

_Disclaimer: I do not own DGM or TRC._

_Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

_Recap_

"_Call this a temporary truce...and don't bother asking about the details, it's a long story." Road said shortly, indicating that the conversation should come to an end._

"_I have a bad feeling that this isn't going to go well." Lenalee whispered to Allen, clutching his hand tightly. The exorcists were currently tagging along with the noahs. The atmosphere among the two groups was extremely tense and apart from Allen and Lenalee, the other exorcists were able to feel the tension too. The noahs, on the other hand were either not affected by the tension or they had decided to conceal their emotions about it. _

"_Me too...but like what Fay-san had said, we have no choice." Allen whispered back, squeezing her hand reassuringly._

* * *

The group walked in silence for another few minutes. The exorcists were glancing at the noahs at every few seconds, as if they were worried that this was still some kind of trap to ambush them. Surprisingly, the noahs had not made any move nor the slightest expression that they had something up their sleeve. The tension began to rise to dangerous levels but it was broken abruptly just as Tyki, who had been leading the group, came to an abrupt stop.

"Tyki, why are you suddenly stopping over there?" Road asked, poking her head out from behind Cyril.

Tyki made no reply, but instead looked left and right. Apparently, the corridor had split into two different directions and the noah had definitely...

"Dear, dear, Tyki-pon, don't tell me that you forgot how to get there again?" Cyril shook his head mockingly.

"N-no. I'm just stopping for a rest!" Tyki snapped, trying to cover up with a lie but failing miserably.

"You're a terrible liar too..." Devit pointed out slyly.

"Yeah, you are!" Jasdero agreed as well.

"Would you guys stop wasting our time and get on to leading us to the fat guy and the kid?" Kurogane said impatiently.

It was almost as if Sakura had responded to Kurogane's question for she had gone into a trance-like state. Not that she had heard Kurogane's impatient retort, throughout the brief walk, Sakura had been awfully quiet, apparently worried for Syaoran's safety. However, shortly before the group had come to a stop, she had felt a sudden sense of familiarity calling her. As they got nearer, Sakura had found it harder to ignore the call and finally submitted to the call.

"Sakura-san! Are you ok?" Allen had just happened to turn back to check on her and found that she had returned to her trance-like state just like before.

"What did you do to her?" Lavi demanded, looking at Road, who remained unfazed.

"Nothing...Sakura-chan had just gone into a trance by herself." Road answered, completely unfazed by the sudden commotion.

"That means...the feather must be nearby!" Mokona gasped, "But...how come Mokona couldn't sense its presence?"

"It's not only the feather. Syaoran-kun must be nearby as well...along with the Earl." Fay pointed out.

"How did you know about that?" Kurogane asked, getting slightly suspicious.

"Just a guess..." Fay replied simply.

Kurogane eyed him for a moment, as if debating whether should he continue pursuing the matter. Finally, he decided to drop the matter, right now there were more important things, although it was his nature to get down to the bottom of everything.

"Is it always like that whenever you guys are near whatever you're searching for?" Tyki asked, referring to Sakura.

"None of your business" Kurogane replied curtly.

"There's no need to be so rude, I was just asking." Tyki shrugged, not surprised that he did not get an answer.

Just then, a loud bang resounded through the entire area, bringing along a series of tremors. For a moment, both the exorcists and the noahs lost their balance for a bit. Regaining their composure, they scanned the area for anything that was odd-looking

"...what just happened?" Devit asked.

"I thought you guys should know it better since it's your home and all." Kanda answered coldly, earning a glare from Devit.

"Where did Sakura go?" Mokona cried, noticing that the girl was nowhere to be found.

"You don't think she'd-" Allen asked, leaving his sentence hanging for fear of it becoming a fact. Even with the white-haired exorcist leaving his sentence hanging, the others knew that this was the most probable fact that could occur at the moment.

* * *

Slightly earlier before the tremor occurred, the Earl was practically running at inhuman speed, trying to catch up with Syaoran who had either seemed ignorant about it or he chose not to retaliate. It was strange, the Earl thought. It was almost as if the boy was a whole different person, one minute he was fuelled with fiery determination to save his friend and the next he was as cold and unfeeling as the harsh winters that comes and goes. Throughout his long life so far, he had seen people drastically changing their personality into something entirely different. But none of them were like Syaoran.

Normally, people could not actually change their within a short period of time, with the exception of Allen whom he had experienced it first-hand, back in the crumbling fortress of the old ark. Syaoran was different at the very fact that his personality had changed so suddenly and there wasn't anything taunting him in the first place.

"So strange…" The Earl said to himself in a sing-song voice before quickly overtaking the boy, obstructing his way.

"I'm afraid your little journey is coming to an end here." The Earl taunted.

"Move aside." Syaoran replied monotonously, before activating his innocence and directing it at the latter.

As always, the Earl dodged swiftly away from the attack at an inhuman speed and took out his broadsword to return with a powerful attack which rivals that of Syaoran.

"It seems that you've gotten so much stronger in just a matter of minutes..." the Earl taunted yet again, hoping to get a different type of response instead of a monotonous reply, "you're pretty mysterious, aren't you?"

"Get out of my way. I must get the feathers."

Before either of them could break the struggle, there was a bright flash of light. Instantly, both Syaoran and the Earl shielded their eyes unable to tolerate its intensity. After a few moments, the light finally faded leaving a glowing green orb-like object in its wake.

"I've found you, innocence!" cackled the Earl as he lunged forward to grab the innocence. Unfortunately for him, Syaoran had just happened to be slightly faster and swifter.

"Hand it over if you please." The Earl quietly threatened as he swung his broad sword at Syaoran, who had narrowly dodged it.

Syaoran made no reply but instead swung his sword to unleash a stream of fire right at the earl, clutching the innocence in his hand even tighter. The fight went on for a few moments, that is, until a voice cried out.

"SYAORAN-KUN!"

That cry had managed to make Syaoran revert back to his normal self. He turned and found that Sakura was standing a little distance away with a worried look on her face. Syaoran widened his eyes in shock, wondering why and how he and Sakura managed to get here in the first place. A rush of questions came bombarding in his head. Where were the others and why was he fighting the earl while holding one of the innocence that Allen and the others were looking for. As he tried to recall what had happened before, Syaoran had unfortunately let down his guard, allowing the Earl to take the opportunity to strike.

"SYAORAN-KUN!"

* * *

Fay and Kurogane stepped forward in an attempt to find the missing girl. However, Tyki had swiftly stepped in front, preventing them from going any further.

"I thought you'd said we have a truce." Allen growled.

"Yes, but I'm afraid the truce is as of now, over." Tyki answered, "it seems that the girl had went off in search of the innocence on her own without our knowledge, thus, this truce is broken."

"Step aside, before you regret it." Kurogane growled as he activated his innocence.

"Then, I would gladly take this pleasure to fight. I hope you would be as good as that guy over there..." Tyki replied, pointing towards Kanda, who scowled at the point of being mentioned.

"Hey! Get the others and go find the kid and the princess!" Kurogane shouted to Fay.

"I'm way ahead of you." Fay teased as he and the others made their way forward.

"You know, there are other noahs besides Tyki." Road mentioned. Yet again, their front path was being obstructed.

"You can't get away that easy!" Devit cried triumphantly, while Jasdero nodded enthusiastically.

"We'll have to just see about that..." Fay smiled. Then he turned to Lenalee and whispered, "Lenalee-san, your boots can enable you to travel almost at the speed of light right?"

"Yes,"

"I want you to take Mokona with you and bring Allen-kun along if you can, and escape from here to find Syaoran and Sakura." Fay instructed, careful not to let the noahs overhear the conversation. Unknown to the others he had used some of his magic to prevent anyone from overhearing it, including Road.

"But what about you guys?"

"We'll manage somehow…now go!" Fay reassured her, giving her a light pat on the back.

"Innocence activate!" Lenalee activated dark boots and grabbed both Mokona and Allen.

"Lenalee, what-" Allen tried to ask but was interrupted by Lenalee.

"I'll explain later, hang on tight! You two" Lenalee answered before speeding off.

"That's quite a sneaky move you have there, but you're not going to pull any magic tricks this time" Road commented, after she realized the reason Lenalee had sped off with both Allen and Mokona, "Now it's time for me to show what I can do." She continued.

Suddenly, the surrounding began to break and dissolve around them, or at least to Fay. He gasped in surprise as the ground fell away. He tried to move away from the quickly dissolving floor but his legs stood rooted at their spot, refusing to move. Fay's blue eyes widened even further as he noticed that Kurogane, Lavi and Kanda had not made any attempt to escape the present danger.

"Kuro-tan! Yuu! Lavi! Get out of the way!" The magician shouted.

"Don't bother telling them, they won't be able to hear you. Besides, you're the only one experiencing this right now." Road voice spoke softly.

"…what? ..."

"Hey! Get up and fight!" Kurogane yelled at Fay, who had just slumped down on his knees. Unfortunately, the magician had not made any attempt that he had heard, let alone move. It was almost as if he had become unconscious kneeling down.

"Don't tell me, that's was what Road did during our previous battle in the ark..?" Lavi noticed Fay's sudden actions were somewhat almost familiar, "I've just heard it from Allen and Lenalee, both of them have described that Road has the ability to make people see what they normally don't wish to see and once they panic, they would be playing right into Road's hands, allowing her to control them."

"Che, do we have any way to snap him out of it?" Kanda muttered.

"No…I'm afraid he has to snap out of it on his own." Lavi replied.

"That's definitely enough chit-chat for you three. Now time to finish you off." Both Devit and Jasdero shouted at the same time and aimed their guns at them. "Red Bomb!"

"And so the actions have begun. Lulubell, I'm quite sure that it'll make the master happy if you join the fight." Cyril commented, turning to the noah of lust.

"…Then what about you?" came Lulubell's reply.

"I'll try to stop the other three who managed to slip away earlier, so I'll be taking my leave now." Cyril answered, hopping down lightly and made his way in the direction that Allen, Lenalee and Mokona had headed earlier.

"You're not going after them." Kanda jumped in front of Cyril, not letting him from taking a step further.

"I'm afraid that I'll have to. Besides, aren't you a little busy at the moment?" Cyril answered slightly, pointing to his right where a large ball of fire was headed in Kanda's direction. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Kanda jumped out of the way, leaving Cyril free to go.

"I'd love to stay and join in the action but I really have important things to attend to." Cyril commented smoothly, and continued on as if there wasn't any interruption.

* * *

"It's been nice fighting with you, boy, but this has to end here right now." The Earl raised his sword, ready to deliver a fatal blow over Syaoran, who had fallen over due to the impact from the Earl's previous attacks.

Without any warning, two shots rang out, knocking the Earl's sword out of his hands. This had surprised him as he was convinced that he had a firm grip on the sword even if someone had tried to grab it out of his hands. Apart from the Earl, Syaoran was also shocked for the same reasons as the Earl's as well. What had surprised him even more was that when he turned his head to see if Sakura was in any sort of danger, his eyes widened in both surprise and shock. Standing there, Sakura held her weapon in place, apparently the one who fired just a moment ago. Her eyes were filled with determination and any form of worry she had before was safely masked behind her expressions.

"Do not move any further."

* * *

_A/N: Another chapter up and done! Now, I'm feeling rather drained and lack of energy...still reluctant on getting back to my work...=P Some of you might be interested to know about the results of the poll that has been up on my profile page for quite some time. So far, the results are that the Pandora HeartsxFMA crossover fic is in the lead with FMA fic trailing behind...The winner choice of my poll would be uploaded onto FF (dot) net alongside another fic that I've started writing...On another note, I'm still pretty much excited and happy after I saw the spoilers for the final chapter of FMA (Fullmetal-alchemist)...It's definitely sad to see that a great manga has come to an end...but still, I'm not going to reveal anything here so that readers who are also FMA fans would not be spoiled if they haven't reached to that part of the manga yet...^^_

_Please read & review!=)_


	17. Chapter 17

_A/N: Finally I've managed to upload a new chapter! I would have uploaded a few days ago but somehow FF (dot) net was having some problems...(-) Okay, enough of that and moving on, I would like to thank all those who had reviewed so far and also to those who read but didn't review...hope you've enjoyed the story so far. ^^ Lastly, for this chapter up ahead, please read the warning below :) _

**THIS CHAPTER WILL BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM MY OTHER CHAPTERS BECAUSE IT WILL HAVE SOME SPOILERS FROM CHAPTERS 158 TO 166 (IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY...) OF TSUBASA CHRONICLES. **

_

* * *

Recap_

"_It's been nice fighting with you, boy, but this has to end here right now." The Earl raised his sword, ready to deliver a fatal blow over Syaoran, who had fallen over due to the impact from the Earl's previous attacks._

_Without any warning, two shots rang out, knocking the Earl's sword out of his hands. This had surprised him as he was convinced that he had a firm grip on the sword even if someone had tried to grab it out of his hands. Apart from the Earl, Syaoran was also shocked for the same reasons as the Earl's as well. What had surprised him even more was that when he turned his head to see if Sakura was in any sort of danger, his eyes widened in both surprise and shock. Standing there, Sakura held her weapon in place, apparently the one who fired just a moment ago. Her eyes were filled with determination and any form of worry she had before was safely masked behind her expressions._

"_Do not move any further."_

* * *

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The Earl tutted as he turned to face Sakura fully.

"Sakura! Get away from here!" Syaoran gasped as he tried to stand.

"I won't let you hurt him!" Sakura maintained her steady posture, giving away no sign of fear.

"Your innocence is rather powerful since it had managed to knock my sword out of my hand. Not many could do that..."

The Earl had suddenly appeared right in front of her before she could even blink, catching her by surprise. But before Sakura could even gasp, the earl grabbed her by the neck, cutting off her air supply rapidly.

"Miss, I'm afraid you're going to meet your end here." The Earl chuckled as he watched Sakura struggling helplessly to free herself. His other hand began forming a ball of energy; similar to the one he had formed before attempting to destroy Lenalee and her innocence back in Edo. Without a second hesitation, the Earl prepared to strike the girl.

Suddenly, Sakura found herself surrounded in a dark area surrounded by hundreds of skulls which seem to be laughing sadistically. The girl had wanted to scream but found that she could not and as a result, she tried to move away from the skulls but found that her legs wouldn't obey, leaving her to only stare fearfully into the empty eyes of the skulls who seem to be enjoying her growing sense of fear.

Syaoran could not watch any further as the Earl tried to finish Sakura off. With a grunt of pain, he stood up and rushed at the latter at top speed. Unfortunately, the Earl deflected him as if he was merely swatting away a fly.

"SAKURA!" Syaoran attempted to once again lunge at the Earl. Fortunately, this time, there was back-up.

A white cape with a silver cowl along with a beam of blue-greenish light were on his either side and the trio had managed to hit the Earl with enough force to cause him to topple over and his attack to veer off-course.

"Ah, Allen-kun and Lenalee have come to join in the party as well." The Earl got up and dusted his coat.

"Lenalee, let's attack before he gets the chance." Allen muttered, as he willed his innocence to transform into the all familiar black broadsword with white markings on the sides.

Lenalee nodded and immediately willed her dark boots to fly straight on at the earl, hoping to get a direct hit on the latter. While the pair distracted the Earl, Syaoran immediately went

"Sakura, are you okay?" Syaoran immediately went over and helped her up.

"...I-I-I'm fine..." Sakura managed to reply, still shaking slightly from her close encounter.

The pair tried to get away from the battle between Allen and Lenalee and the Earl. However, before they could get far enough, Cyril jumped in front of them, stopping the two in their tracks. Instinctively, Syaoran motioned Sakura to stay behind him, before holding out his arms protectively to prevent Cyril from intending to get any closer.

"Don't worry. I'll play fair. After all, I'm a politician. I prefer to play by the rules." Cyril smiled.

"Sakura, please stay back." Syaoran muttered, sending a reassured smile to the worried girl. Even though, it was wiser that he and Sakura should run rather than stay, Syaoran had a feeling that Cyril would never give up until he agrees to face him.

Sakura tried to protest but sensed the determination in him and silently stepped back, casting a warning glance at Cyril. Syaoran immediately took out his anti-akuma weapon and activated it once again, allowing the flames to engulf the blade of the sword.

"Excellent. I thought you would refuse." Cyril smirked as he leapt with practiced ease to begin the attack.

Instead of attacking with his sword first, Syaoran brought up his right leg and expertly deflected the oncoming blow by the noah, resulting in the latter flying back a little but otherwise fine.

"Hmm...interesting, looks like I'm not going to be bored after all." Cyril commented, displaying a maniacal smile just like Tyki whenever he's immensely enjoying himself. The noah once again went towards Syaoran again, this time with a blow much stronger than the initial attack.

* * *

The surrounding was seemingly empty, save for a few random chairs and dolls lying around on any part of the area, including the ceiling. For Fay, he was somewhat taken aback by the layout of the room; it was the first time he saw anyone perform such powerful magic throughout his travels with Syaoran and the others, aside from Seishirou, at least. However, the magician knew that letting his guard down might be the key to his downfall if he wasn't careful.

"I see that you're surprised." Road's voice echoed throughout the room.

"Yeah, this is quite something" Fay agreed immediately changing his expression into his normal cheerful self.

"Glad that you like it, judging by your expression, or should I say that you're just masking your real feelings?" Road asked testily.

"This place is not too bad" Fay answered, his expression unchanged.

"Well then, time for me to show you something you might want to see." Her grin suddenly appeared on the ceiling. It was almost like the Cheshire cat's grin from the story 'Alice in Wonderland', as soon as the grin appeared, it faded into the darkness with her laughter echoing off the perimeter of the room.

The laughter gradually died down and was replaced with the sound of echoing footsteps. Fay opened his eyes as soon as he heard distant footsteps that became louder and louder, wondering if that might be Road herself. Soon, the footsteps stopped, revealing the figure's bottom half of the body while the rest remained hidden in the shadows. Fay held back a gasp that struggled to come out from his mouth as he realised that the person standing half-hidden in the darkness might just not be the one he expected to see ever again.

Tentatively, Fay took a step forward, hoping that his suspicions would not come true. However, with each step, his breath became quicker and shallower. Finally, he decided not to take a step further.

"What's the matter? Afraid?" Road's voice taunted.

"Well, if you're afraid to go any further, let me help you..." her voice continued, noticing that the magician would not reply.

The figure began to move from the shadows, revealing his identity. Fay could only stand there in shock.

"...Fay?" he whispered, unable to take in the fact that his twin was standing in front of him.

"Nice to see you again. Yuui." The figure spoke, this time looking up and straight into the magician's eye.

"I'll leave you two for now; I hope you'll enjoy your last moments." Road said, putting emphasis on the last word before taking her leave with her laughter echoing throughout the place.

* * *

While Fay was psychologically trapped by Road, Kanda, Kurogane and Lavi were doing their best to fend off the attacks that Jasdevi and Tyki. Right now at the moment, it was unclear as to which side is winning.

"This is getting nowhere! Any ideas on how we're going to end this fast?" Kurogane shouted as he skilfully dodged yet another attack by Jasdevi.

"Simple. Just stop fighting and surrender to us." Tyki smirked.

"Yeah right, like we're going to listen to that." Kanda retorted.

"I'll never understand exorcists. Always choosing the hard way," Tyki replied, "Then again, it's this fact that makes the whole war so interesting."

"Kuro-tan is right, this is gonna take forever if we don't end this now, we'll never get to Allen-kun and the others in time."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Kanda shot back.

"We'll just have to use enough strength to knock them out for a while." Lavi started, "but that's easier said than done."

"Che, why must it always have to be this way," Kanda grumbled.

"It can't be helped. It's the only way." Lavi sighed.

"_Luckily Road's not here at the moment, otherwise, there might be a big disadvantage for us."_ Lavi thought as he tried to formulate a plan. Somehow, the noah of dreams had left unannounced as soon as she dealt with Fay. Though curious as to where she went, Lavi decided that it's better to leave the question hanging in case she decided to return again.

"Alright, let's end this quickly." Kurogane smirked, enjoying the battle as he fought, "Hamma Ryoujin!" he shouted as he swung his katana down, it's power immediately coming into contact with Jasdevi who had realised it too late and only turned to receive the full force of power flying right at them.

"You'll pay for this!" Jasdevi growled in annoyance as they staggered up from their fallen positions.

"It's about time you get serious. I've never seen an opponent taking his time getting serious." Kurogane began taunting the noah of bonds.

"Oh. We're getting serious all right. We'll make you experience something ten times worse than that vampire exor-!" Jasdevi was immediately cut off as the ninja sent another attack flying their way.

"You're too slow." Kurogane taunted even further.

"That's not fair! Ok, now time to play rough!" Jasdevi cried as they shot their long strands of hair right at Kurogane and tied him up.

"See, we've got you where we wanted." Jasdevi smirked triumphantly, watching Kurogane struggle to break free of the bonds.

"Heh, you think this will keep me down?" Kurogane smirked, as he stopped fighting to get free of the bonds.

Jasdevi only had the time to give a questioning look before Kurogane concentrated on his katana which suddenly glowed due to the immense power it was gathering. The ninja had seemed to practically break the bonds with little effort but that had used up majority of his strength, leaving him panting slightly after breaking free.

"...What?" Jasdevi gasped as Kurogane.

""Heh, this is just too easy now." The ninja replied, sending one final blow towards Jasdevi which had knocked them off their feet, rendering them unconscious.

"Hmm...that should keep them out for a while." Kurogane muttered as he walked away from the unconscious duo.

Meanwhile, both Lavi and Kanda were trying really hard to find a weak point from Tyki, who seemingly had almost no flaws at all or that he's good at hiding them. The noah deftly dodged each one of their blows, making the two exorcists more frustrated after each blow.

"Would you stop dodging like that already?" Lavi panted as he swung his hammer right at Tyki.

"I think my answer would be obvious," Tyki replied, "I'm having too much fun to stop right now."

"We'll make sure that you'll take your words back." Kanda said, placing two fingers on the blade of mugen, ready to use another attack.

"Oh? Then I hope that I'll be entertained."

* * *

"It's good to see you again...Yuui" his long dead twin repeated, this time bringing Fay out of his reverie.

"It can't be...it's impossible..." the magician gasped, unable to recover from the shock. He had shielded his mind so well from other people who are capable of reading minds, including Mokona. So how was this girl able to read his mind and find out about something that he wanted to keep secret? Road was definitely not like anyone he had not encountered before.

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy to see me?" his twin continued. This time, much closer to him than before;

Fay had wanted to say something but somehow his voice couldn't find its way out. He knew all too well this was just an illusion but he couldn't help going along with it.

"It's nice to see you again though but this would also be goodbye," the figure suddenly brandished out a dagger and stabbed Fay, who could only gasp in both horror and shock.

"Goodbye...Yuui."

_

* * *

A/N: Sorry that I have to leave it at this cliffhanger...and if there's any non-tsubasa readers who are confused about what's going on in this chapter, PM me so I could give a short summary about what's going on with Fay...=) _


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hello again after a really LONG time! Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and alerts added for this fic so far~! I have to apologize that since I've last updated, I've kinda lost interest in D. Gray-Man...=X Gomenasai! I'll try my best to wrap up this story, I think it'll be another 1 or 2 chapters, at most. Do stay tuned for my new fics, one of them is going to be uploaded shortly ^^**

**In the meantime, do enjoy this extra long chapter update (initially meant to be 2 chapters but I've decided to combine them into one)^^**

* * *

_Recap_

"_It can't be...it's impossible..." the magician gasped, unable to recover from the shock. He had shielded his mind so well from other people who are capable of reading minds, including Mokona. So how was this girl able to read his mind and find out about something that he wanted to keep secret? Road was definitely not like anyone he had not encountered before._

"_What's wrong? Aren't you happy to see me?" his twin continued. This time, much closer to him than before;_

_Fay had wanted to say something but somehow his voice couldn't find its way out. He knew all too well this was just an illusion but he couldn't help going along with it. _

"_It's nice to see you again though but this would also be goodbye," the figure suddenly brandished out a dagger and stabbed Fay, who could only gasp in both horror and shock._

"_Goodbye...Yuui."_

* * *

Fay slowly looked down and took in the sight where blood was beginning to form at his abdomen, eyes still wide with shock and recognition slowly seeping in. As the stain became larger, he felt himself growing weak in the knees and had to change from a standing position to a sitting one.

"...Fay..."

"I thought you'll be more of a challenge, but looks like you're much weaker than the bookman junior." His twin spoke again, this time with a maniacal expression on his face.

Fay looked up with a look of hatred on his face. No one should ever use his twin's face and taunt him. Knowing that Road has the ability to read minds; he mentally silently shielded his mind using his magic. With Road not being able to read his thoughts, it would be all even out now.

"Do you really think so?" Fay gasped, as he held his hand over his wound.

"...This is a surprise. Oh well, at least I get to finish you off with more satisfaction, if you actually put up more than a fight, that is." Fay twin's smiled maniacally.

"Don't worry, I won't disappoint you." The mage replied, starting to draw various symbols in the air using his hand. "Since I can't use innocence, I have no choice but to use my magic to fight you."

"A smart choice, well I guess I revert back to my original form." This time, Road's voice issued from the twin's mouth and within a blink of an eye, she turned back to her noah self.

"My powers are better when I'm in this form."

"Fine by me, looks like it'll be easier this way. Usually, I'll hold back when fighting against girls but for you, I'll make an exception." Fay's expression turned serious and he fired a ball of energy right at her without any hesitation.

"Looks like I've underestimated you slightly," Road commented as she narrowly dodged the attack, "time to show mine."

With a wave of her hand, tens of floating candles came in front of her, with the pointed tips aimed at the mage. Road merely gave a sadistic smirk before directing the candlesticks right at him.

Like Road, Fay had barely enough time to dodge the attack. He had managed conjure up a barrier just as the first of the numerous candlesticks came into contact with it. Unfortunately, one of the candlesticks managed to pass the barrier and graze the side of his left eye, causing him to wince slightly upon the impact.

Road immediately saw this as her opportunity, she directed even more candlesticks towards the barrier, attempting to break the barrier since he was distracted at that moment. Even with the constant barrage of attack by Road, Fay had managed to recover quickly and increased the strength of the barrier. However, this time, Fay had increased the power of the barrier, causing Road's attack deflect and aim for her instead.

Road was unable to dodge this attack and it caught her full force. She screamed as the fire engulfed her body, Fay looked on at the burning sight and closed his eyes and sighed, "It's over." and turned to leave the scene.

"Whoever said that it's over?" Road's voice cackled over the dying embers of the fire, "It has only just begun.

* * *

"Seriously, this can't keep up forever!" Lavi exclaimed as he was thrown back yet again. Kanda, growled in agreement, equally frustrated about their current situation. The two had been constantly attacking the Tyki who had been doing nothing but dodging effortlessly and attacking occassionally. It was obvious as to who has the advantage.

"Come up with some plan, would you?" Kanda muttered, struggling to stand up. Lavi was about to protest initially but soon understood what the samurai meant.

"Got it, Yuu." Lavi smirked, giving a thumbs up sign.

"Call me by my first name again, and I'll be coming after you next." Kanda threatened, sending a death glare right at the bookman.

"...ok..."

"I hope you exorcists have more in store for me, I'm still rather bored, you know..." Tyki called from the other side of the corridor.

"Then I guess you better be prepared." Kanda smirked, his eyes gleaming with excitement and seriousness at the same time. Lavi stood up as well in order to make it seem as if he was going to join in the fight. Kanda had meant to use himself as a distraction in order to buy some time for Lavi to come up with a plan to turn the tables in this one-sided battle.

* * *

For quite some period of time, it had seemed that both Syaoran and Cyril were fighting on par. It was difficult to see who was winning. Sakura wanted to help badly but due to this, she could merely watch helplessly from the sidelines. As the fight between the two progressed, Syaoran began to feel that his muscles were beginning to tire; however, he was determined to defeat Cyril in battle in hope that he could protect Sakura as well as help both Allen and Lenalee. Cyril also noticed the boy's moves had faltered slightly and wasn't as hard as before. Instantly, Cyril directed a sharp kick to his left, realising that it was his weakness.

As he expected, Syaoran had reacted a moment too late, allowing the noah to give a hard kick to his right leg, making him lose his balance.

"What's wrong? Getting tired already?" Cyril taunted as Syaoran tried to get up.

"I won't let you win." He panted, trying not to wince at the pain that was starting to build up in his leg.

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura cried out worriedly as she stood frozen in shock.

"Stay back, Sakura..." Syaoran said quietly, regaining his composure.

"I've always liked a good fight. Sitting in an office all day could get boring once in a while." Cyril smiled devilishly as he attempted to deliver yet another attack.

* * *

Meanwhile, Allen and Lenalee stood facing the Earl.

"This is rather nostalgic, isn't it?" the Earl started, "Feels like I'm going after that miss' innocence again,"

"Don't even start on it." Allen growled warningly. "Now the two of us are going to fight you evenly." Lenalee felt touched at Allen's words, glad that he did not take her for some damsel in distress.

"Touching; But like I've said a long time ago, both of you are going to perish together whether you like it or not." The Earl heaved two gigantic balls of dark energy right at the pair who dodged almost instantaneously to avoid the attack.

"Edge end!"

"Sound shackles!"

Both Allen's and Lenalee's attack combined into one, forming a white glow of energy accompanied by turquoise-coloured lines at the sides.

"Oh my, oh my, looks like the two of you have gotten stronger since we've last met." The earl taunted dodging so skilfully that anyone of his build would find it impossible to do, "But still too early to fight on par with me, now this is the end! Exorcists!"

A large ball of dark energy went straight for the pair; it was too late for any of them to dodge for the energy beam circumference was too wide. For a second, Allen and Lenalee stood frozen, unsure of whether to run ahead or put up their best defences. However, the former would seem as a futile effort as it is only a matter of time that they get swallowed up by the attack. The two exorcists wisely picked the latter choice. Somehow, instinctively, they knew that there would be a better chance of surviving if they defend themselves.

"Brace yourself, Lenalee." Allen gritted his teeth and wrapped his white cape around them, shielding themselves from the attack.

* * *

As time wore on, Lavi still could not come up with a plan. The bookman junior racked his brains, nearly panicking while Kanda fought on with the noah. Due to the injuries sustained, it was obvious that Kanda was fighting a losing battle.

"I thought you would provide more of a challenge than Allen." Tyki taunted. "Among the exorcists, I alway thought you were the toughest. Did you honestly defeat Skinn back in the old ark?"

"Do NOT compare me with that beansprout." Kanda growled as he deflected another attack from the noah.

"Mugen, First Illusion, Hell's Insects!"

"_No...just stay calm...and think of a plan.._" Lavi thought, as he shook his head to clear his thoughts. Then, it hit Lavi. Tyki hasn't paid any attention to him since Kanda stood up to attack him...which means that this gives him the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Lavi mentally facepalmed himself for not seeing this obvious idea in the first place before concentrating on how to attack without Tyki noticing him until it was too late.

"Hope your timing is good...Yuu" the bookman muttered, "Combo Stamp: Terrible Lightning of Heaven!"

Both men are still locked in battle. However, as soon as Lavi made his move, Tyki noticed it and almost decided to dodge it, but didn't because he noticed that the attack was clearly not directed at him...

"Oi, looks like your friend has some aiming problems. Too bad for you, I guess." Tyki grinned as he used more strength in an effort to take Kanda down.

Lavi's attack still headed in Kanda's direction at full speed. Suprisingly, Kanda merely grunted in response, his face scrunched up in concentration. "Really?"

Tyki was about to make a reply. Using all his strength, Kanda took the opportunity to catch the noah off-guard and leapt out of the way just in time for the attack to close in on the noah, leaving him vulnerable to the attack. The attack managed to hit him straight on causing the noah to scream in agony as the lightning attacked him, burning his skin serverely. After a while, the screams died down, leaving a fairly charred being standing in the middle.

"Did we get him?" Lavi walked up to Kanda who studied the corpse from where he stood.

"Do you really think that you can take a noah down so easily?" a hoarse voice issued out from the corpse. By reflex, both Kanda and Lavi got into the battle stances, ready to attack. Undaunted by this, the corpse stood up and bit by bit, new skin began forming over the charred ones, tattered clothes were also being repaired, leaving them as good as new

"That's a really good play, exorcists. I really had fun. But it's time for me to go now, save some energy for the future battles." the now 'regenerated' Tyki brushed his hair back as he flashed them a smirk.

"Wait!" Kanda started but Tyki shook it off with a wave and disappearing into the gateway of the new ark. Before either exocist could give chase, the ark entrance disappeared in a flash, leaving them standing in the now 'battle-worn' corridor.

"Che, it's troublesome." Kanda muttered, sheathing his sword back.

"Come on, let's go find the others." Lavi suggested as he started down the corridor.

* * *

Fay's eyes widened with shock as he saw the noah of dreams regenerated herself. No normal person under any circumstances would have survived that...Fay shook his head to clear his mind, "She isn't a normal person.." he reminded himself.

"That attack kinda tickles but you'll have to do a lot more than that to kill me!" Road laughed, noticing Fay's shocked expression.

Determined to end this quickly, Fay raised his hand and drew a different set of symbols, wordlessly sending it in Road's direction before the noah could dodge. However, instead of a look of shock, Road had a different expression. Her mouth curled upwards to form a maniacal smile. It was almost as if she had expected this...

"...NO!" Fay gasped, unable to contain himself. At the last moment before his attack had hit Road, the noah had transformed into his twin and when the attack made contact, she screamed, issuing forth the voice Fay wouldn't dream of hearing in his lifetime.

"No...stop! I'm sorry...Fay..." the magician whispered, crouching down unable to look at the scene any longer.

"Game Over." Road's voice floated over to the crouching magician, with a dagger in her hand. Triumphantly, she swung the dagger down but only to be met with resistance at the final moment.

"You'll have to do a lot more than that to kill me." Fay repeated Road's words softly before swinging his innocence at her, stabbing her stomach.

"Haha...Good game. You're better than I thought. This will be considered as your win." Road laughed as she gradually 'dissolved' away. Also, along with her, the surroundings of her illusion began disappearing as well. Fay blinked his eyes repeatedly, only to realize that he was back in the area with Kurogane, Kanda and Lavi.

"Hey, are you back to yourself?" Kurogane shook the magician lightly. As much as Fay wanted to reply, he could merely nod his head. As he stood up, Fay felt a sharp pain at the side of his abdomen, causing him to slide back down into a sitting position.

"Are you all right?" Kurogane eyes widened slightly.

"Looks like Road's illusions are real" he commented, not bothering to look at the wound.

Before Kurogane could come up with a reply, the ground shook, causing bits and pieces of debris and dust fell from the ceiling, slowly making the intact room crumble. The ninja stood up, his senses alert in case there was another attack. Fay tried to stand as well but the injury held him back.

"We'd better get out of here...Looks like this place is going to collapse on us if we continue sitting here." Kurogane hoisted Fay onto his back and made his way out.

"Kuro-pon, you're really strong" Fay teased, wincing slightly at the pain of his injury.

"Keep talking and I'll leave you here." Kurogane growled warningly.

"I know' you wouldn't do that..."

"Che..."

"See?"

"...Shut up."

"Ah! I see Lavi and Kanda!" Fay waved to them, the exorcists duo quickly made their way towards them and wasted no time in moving forward to find an exit.

* * *

Sakura had felt that this was happening all too fast. Syaoran wasn't doing too well against Cyril ever since the latter had wounded his leg. It was only when Syaoran had fallen to the ground and couldn't get up that Sakura ran up to him,

"Syaoran-kun!" she heaved the injured boy into her arms and gently smoothed his hair covering his face.

"Such a sweet moment. But I'm sorry but I have to deny you the pleasure of remaining here for long." Cyril mocked, raising his hand in an attempt to eliminate both the Syaoran and Sakura.

Sakura merely gave the noah a determined glare and held Syaoran closer to her. As the noah was about to deliver his finishing blow, a bright white light suddenly engulfed both injured teens.

"...W-What?" Cyril gasped, unable to mask his surprise.

Like Cyril, Sakura had the same reaction. After the glare from the light faded, Sakura slowly opened her eyes seeing that both she and Syaoran were in a white empty space apart from a feather floating in the middle of the space. There wasn't any noah, let alone Cyril, in sight.

For an instant, Sakura had almost forgotten about the innocence that she or rather they had been looking for in the first place. Gently, setting down the still unconscious boy head, she cautiously stepped towards the floating feather.

Sakura only stopped when she was just a step away from the feather, staring at it with an expressionless gaze.

"You'll help me, won't you?" she asked quietly. There was no need of any reply. It was as if a mutual understanding had been reached between the two. In response, the feather glowed brightly, making the room even more glaring than before.

Just as the light began to fade, Sakura was back where she and Syaoran had faced Cyril as he was supposedly about to deliver the 'finishing' blow to them. Without hesitation, Sakura aimed her innocence at Cyril, allowing a beam to be shot out.

Cyril let out a gasp of surprise, utterly shocked at what had just happened but soon smirked as the light was losing its power steadily by the second. Immediately taking the chance, he used his powers and guided a nearby spike towards the girl's front.

At this point, Sakura was rendered defenceless, due to the fact that she had used too much of her power. Fortunately, just as Cyril struck, Syaoran had just merely regained consciousness and deflected his blow just in time.

"Don't even think about doing that."

"Nice recovery, boy, but I'm afraid that we have to put a stop to this fight." Cyril smirked, satisfied with the fight. Without a warning, the earl immediately moved at lightning speed and shot the collapsing walls, causing it to fall on the pair.

* * *

Under the impression that he had done dealing with the exorcists, the Earl mockingly took out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and blew his nose. "Ahh...such a shame that four young exorcists' lives were lost,"

"Earl, you're missing them already?" Cyril asked jokingly, knowing full well that he was just playing around.

"Not really. I'm just happy that there are less troublesome exorcists to deal with now," the Earl replied, stuffing back the handkerchief into his pocket as he walked away. "We have to leave the fight here for now. There are more pressing matters at hand for us."

"Really. I hate to leave the fight like this, but if you say so." Cyril bowed respectfully before following the Earl's retreating figure.

Allen struggled to get up but his movements were restricted. Panting slightly, the exorcist looked around, noticing that the place was crumbling down. Syaoran was being supported by Sakura while Lenalee had seemed to disappear from the scene altogether.

His eyes grew frantic for a moment but soon faded into relief as he saw the girl just in front of him, holding out a hand to him.

"Lenalee..."

"Allen-kun, can you stand?" Lenalee asked in concern.

"I'm fine. We'd better find the others and get out of here." Allen replied, accepting Lenalee's help.

As if on cue, Fay and the others came running towards them. Lavi shouted to them across the hall, "Do any of you have any idea on where's the exit?"

"No, I don't see any here." Lenalee raised her voice slightly over the noise of crumbling debris. Now the group formed a circle formation around each other, hoping to spot an exit, even a tiny one, so that they're able to escape.

"If only we are able to make an exit, just like the Earl..." Lenalee sighed.

"That's it!" Allen gasped, "I almost forgot about the 14th's power!"

"Great. Why are you this forgetful?" Kanda grumbled.

"Shut up, Bakanda. I bet you wouldn't remember it if you were me." Allen retorted.

Kanda was about to draw his sword when Syaoran quickly placed a hand over, "Please don't start a fight here. Right now, the most important thing is that we should get out."

Kanda stared at the boy, before sighing "Che. Troublesome."

Now that Kanda was not arguing with him, Allen turned away from the samurai, and took a deep breath before focusing on his abilities to tap into the 14th's abilities.

Then, the ground began to glow a bright white, forming a circle around Allen and the others. Slowly, the light began to reach up to the ceiling, covering them from the falling debris of the new ark.

As soon as the light engulfed them, it began to fade, having accomplished its job, leaving the exorcists standing in the middle of the whitewashed city.

"...Wha-" Kurogane wanted to ask but somehow his voice was stuck, preventing words from coming out. Even Fay was in shock, the new surrounding has brought back some unpleasant memories from him.

Allen sighed as the last remains of the light vanished, leaving the group safe. He felt drained as he was not used to the 14th's power yet. Allen almost stumbled his way to the nearest door to them. Sensing that the white haired exorcist could collapse anytime, Lenalee walked over to him and supported his weight. Allen smiled in gratitude, even though he wanted to reply. The pair made their way to the door and went through it, the others followed closely behind.

Fresh air finally greeted them as the exorcists made their way through the door. Turns out they've exited into the place where they have been before being attacked by the Earl and the Noahs.

Allen collapsed onto ground in sheer exhaustion, bringing Lenalee down with him for she could not support his weight alone. The pair blushed slightly at the closeness before separating to a considerable distance.

"that's cute." Fay chuckled lightly, easing up the tension that was present ever since they left the fight.

"Yep, there's another couple that's really affectionate over there." Lavi agreed, turning towards Syaoran, who was by Sakura's side.

"Give them some time alone, you two." Kurogane muttered.

"Oh? Kuro-pon, are you jealous?" Fay teased, earning an irritated growl from the ninja. Lavi turned towards Kanda, ready to tease him as well but before he could say anything, Kanda growled.

"don't even think about it"

"...yes..." Lavi sighed in defeat before mentally adding that he should start taking lessons from Fay.

"Hey!." From a distance away, the group spotted some finders rushing towards them. Within a matter of minutes, the finders tended to their wounds as best as they could.

"Exorcist-sama, mind if I ask, what happened here?" one of the finders asked as he tended to Allen's injury.

"Nothing. It was just some tough competition." Allen didn't bother to go into details, feeling that this was sufficient to leave it as an ambush by a large number of akumas.

"Ah. I see. Well, we have to rush you all to the nearest hospital. I'm afraid that the wounds on you are too serious." With that, the finders supported the exorcists, leaving the place.


End file.
